1. I did see some of the fall-out from Mosey's and Joseph's very late night last night. I'll leave it at that. :-) (It could have been worse, though.)
2. Ben and I voted! Joseph came along to see how it was done. I felt bad because I hadn't had time to do much research on many of the candidates, and so I left several of the voting items blank. I'm completely opposed to the "Get out the vote" thing. I'm very much in favor of, "Get educated, and then get out the vote." If you are not educated on the candidates and are not familiar with their platform or record, you should NOT VOTE. Better to leave it blank than to vote for random people, or whoever's sign you happened to see last as you drove into the voting place. But I did vote for Romney and for the senator and representative I'm in favor of. And all the people who were running unopposed. :-) And for once, the late-May Texas primary counted for something, and MY vote helped Romney clinch the nomination! Yay!
3. Joseph had a make-up flute lesson at 6:00. It was awesome how quickly we were able to speed home at 7:00 at night, as opposed to 5:30. On our way to flute, he asked me what I thought he would be when he grows up. You know, I'm not sure! I could see him doing something law-related. I need to track down a website or something that lists some of the thousands of jobs that successful people have in the United States. There are lots of things to do!
I was determined to get Mosey and Joseph in bed early tonight, so we did a Taco Bell run on the way home from flute. They were supposed to be in bed by 8:30. Mosey was, but Joseph conveniently got into the shower at 8:25. But it wasn't too late. Of course, Mosey thought it was completely unfair that he had to go to bed and turn off the light when Brigham got to stay up and read Fablehaven. So he lay in his bed sobbing pathetically off and on (oh, the injustice of it all!!) until 9:00 or so. Ben came home from Elders Quorum stuff at 9:30, at which point I saw the tell-tale rim of light shining from behind Joseph's bedroom door. THAT BOY!!!!!!!!!!!! Ben went upstairs and turned it off, and I'm praying he's asleep now. At least it will be better than 12:15 AM...
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
05/28/2012
1. Memorial Day! We did nothing special at all today, and I feel bad. We should have at least gone to a cemetery and put down American Flags. Next year.
2. Ben worked most of the day (from home), the boys lazed around and played and then spent a few hours doing homework that didn't get finished from last week. I got a couple of things crossed off my to-do list: cutting all 3 boys' hair. Joseph was petrified that I was going to cut off too much, and actually started crying and yelling, "OW! You're hurting me! It hurts!!" Tears were actually flowing!! I assured him I was only cutting the back and sides and was leaving the top longer, but he was not convinced. After it was all over and he took a bath, he came out and seemed to be OK with it, but wow! The drama! I was reminded so much of myself when I was about his age. I had long, long hair, and took great pride in it. It was in desperate need of a trim (think green/yellow dried-out ends from days in the sun and the pool). I told my mom only ONE INCH. But she utterly betrayed me and cut off FOUR INCHES!! (Which on my head of hair which went down to the very bottom of my back, was not very much.) Oh, I was so upset. I remember being just devastated the whole day, and so angry with my poor mom. So I'm definitely getting my just deserts. I also managed to fold one load of laundry and got another one started, swept the floor, cleared off and organized all of the stuff that had accumulated on the homeschool table over the past 4 days (how does that happen? Why does it take me 2 hours to get sorted??), and glued a whole stack of pictures into my scrapbook album (from 2006). So I guess I was fairly productive. But that was only because I was procrastinating my main task which was to deal with my massively overflowing in-box on my desk right now which seems to be reproducing before my eyes. I was successful in that endeavor (the procrastination part, not the in-box part), and now I am having procrastinator's remorse. Why didn't I take care of that??
3. Late at night (12:15 AM, to be exact), I was organizing school papers of the boys (see #2 re: procrastination), when I heard little whisperings upstairs. It was Mosey and Joseph, my night-owls. AWAKE AFTER MIDNIGHT ON A SCHOOL NIGHT!! WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE THEY THINKING!! WHY ARE THEY NOT ASLEEP IN THEIR OWN BEDS RIGHT NOW???? Other mothers will understand that tearing feeling of rage, frustration, and dread that comes over you when you realize there's no way your kids are going to get enough sleep and that you are going to have to deal with the fall-out the next day. My instinct is to scream and yell and pound my fists against the floor! Which wouldn't help the sleep-status of the rest of the household at all, so I restrained myself. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
2. Ben worked most of the day (from home), the boys lazed around and played and then spent a few hours doing homework that didn't get finished from last week. I got a couple of things crossed off my to-do list: cutting all 3 boys' hair. Joseph was petrified that I was going to cut off too much, and actually started crying and yelling, "OW! You're hurting me! It hurts!!" Tears were actually flowing!! I assured him I was only cutting the back and sides and was leaving the top longer, but he was not convinced. After it was all over and he took a bath, he came out and seemed to be OK with it, but wow! The drama! I was reminded so much of myself when I was about his age. I had long, long hair, and took great pride in it. It was in desperate need of a trim (think green/yellow dried-out ends from days in the sun and the pool). I told my mom only ONE INCH. But she utterly betrayed me and cut off FOUR INCHES!! (Which on my head of hair which went down to the very bottom of my back, was not very much.) Oh, I was so upset. I remember being just devastated the whole day, and so angry with my poor mom. So I'm definitely getting my just deserts. I also managed to fold one load of laundry and got another one started, swept the floor, cleared off and organized all of the stuff that had accumulated on the homeschool table over the past 4 days (how does that happen? Why does it take me 2 hours to get sorted??), and glued a whole stack of pictures into my scrapbook album (from 2006). So I guess I was fairly productive. But that was only because I was procrastinating my main task which was to deal with my massively overflowing in-box on my desk right now which seems to be reproducing before my eyes. I was successful in that endeavor (the procrastination part, not the in-box part), and now I am having procrastinator's remorse. Why didn't I take care of that??
3. Late at night (12:15 AM, to be exact), I was organizing school papers of the boys (see #2 re: procrastination), when I heard little whisperings upstairs. It was Mosey and Joseph, my night-owls. AWAKE AFTER MIDNIGHT ON A SCHOOL NIGHT!! WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE THEY THINKING!! WHY ARE THEY NOT ASLEEP IN THEIR OWN BEDS RIGHT NOW???? Other mothers will understand that tearing feeling of rage, frustration, and dread that comes over you when you realize there's no way your kids are going to get enough sleep and that you are going to have to deal with the fall-out the next day. My instinct is to scream and yell and pound my fists against the floor! Which wouldn't help the sleep-status of the rest of the household at all, so I restrained myself. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
05/27/2012
1. Church was nice. One of the speakers opened his talk by sharing three of his favorite recipes. He compared that to how we should feel about sharing the gospel. I thought it was a good analogy, and now I have 3 good recipes, to boot. :-)
2. After church we had both my visiting teachers and our home teachers stop by. Double-booked them. Oops. My visiting teachers win, though, because they brought us cake balls. :-)
3. After that, Ben and Joseph and I drove out to see some land that we wish we could buy. There are some really great pieces of land out off of Spicewood Springs Road, on the curvy part before you get to 360. That's one of my favorite parts of Austin, and I could definitely live there. But, all the lots available are multiple acres (4, 8, 9), and are not sub-dividable. Boo. We could afford ONE acre of those pieces of land, but not the whole thing. We're getting our final bid on our house project this next week, though, so I guess it's good to really exhaust all our other options.
2. After church we had both my visiting teachers and our home teachers stop by. Double-booked them. Oops. My visiting teachers win, though, because they brought us cake balls. :-)
3. After that, Ben and Joseph and I drove out to see some land that we wish we could buy. There are some really great pieces of land out off of Spicewood Springs Road, on the curvy part before you get to 360. That's one of my favorite parts of Austin, and I could definitely live there. But, all the lots available are multiple acres (4, 8, 9), and are not sub-dividable. Boo. We could afford ONE acre of those pieces of land, but not the whole thing. We're getting our final bid on our house project this next week, though, so I guess it's good to really exhaust all our other options.
05/26/2012
1. I took Brigham and Mosey to a rehearsal for the stake children's choir, which is performing at stake conference this weekend. Joseph wanted to be in it too, but had archery practice at the exact same time. I was really happy he wanted to be in it, though! This, from my boy who has NEVER wanted to sing!
2. Did errands with Ben in the afternoon. Went to take my violin to the repair shop. It has another open seam. I guess that's what happens with a violin that is 120 years old. I love it and want it to last another 120 years. Then went to the post office, and to Walmart, and finally visiting teaching. Productive afternoon!
3. Later in the evening I went to HEB and did a massive re-stock of our hall closet 3 months supply. I don't know how many pounds of cans I had in there. I'm a master at packing those small ride-on-carts, and can get nearly as much stuff in there as you can in a regular basket. But after restocking my hall closet, I still hadn't gotten produce or cheese or any of the regular things on my list. So when they bagger-boy who came out to help me unload volunteered to take the cart back, I had to tell him I was going back in for more! A little embarrassing. :-)
2. Did errands with Ben in the afternoon. Went to take my violin to the repair shop. It has another open seam. I guess that's what happens with a violin that is 120 years old. I love it and want it to last another 120 years. Then went to the post office, and to Walmart, and finally visiting teaching. Productive afternoon!
3. Later in the evening I went to HEB and did a massive re-stock of our hall closet 3 months supply. I don't know how many pounds of cans I had in there. I'm a master at packing those small ride-on-carts, and can get nearly as much stuff in there as you can in a regular basket. But after restocking my hall closet, I still hadn't gotten produce or cheese or any of the regular things on my list. So when they bagger-boy who came out to help me unload volunteered to take the cart back, I had to tell him I was going back in for more! A little embarrassing. :-)
Friday, May 25, 2012
05/25/2012
1. Friday! Lessons went fairly well. Especially because I didn't make the boys do piano practicing. They don't have lessons next week, so I gave them the rest of the week off of practicing. Brigham and Joseph both worked on a short story they are writing. Last week and this week they've been learning about plot diagrams, and diagramming their own short story. They've had fun with this assignment, and it was so interesting to read their different stories. They are such boys! Joseph's was about a sorcerer trying to take over the world, and zombies, of course. Brigham's was about a murderer, robbers, and a giant man-eating dog. They are both very imaginative. Now if I can only break Brigham's habit of run-on (and on, and on) sentences! :-)
2. Got my hair cut this afternoon. Afterward I failed in trying to register my car. The place I used to go is now only serving Williamson County. It's weird-- I've gone there several times for car-related stuff. I sat there for about 20 minutes until I figured it out, so not too much time wasted, I guess (it was 1 minute away from where I got my hair cut). Places like that are really fascinating for people-watching purposes. Everyone has to get their car registered, titles transferred, etc., so there's a real mix of all sorts of people from the county. As always, I am heart-warmed by the courtesy of the average Texan. I rarely have to open a door for myself when people see me coming on my crutches. And when I went inside and all the chairs were filled, two guys were quick to jump up and offer me theirs.
3. In the evening we drove up to Belton (way up, 25 miles north of Georgetown) to look at granite. We're putting granite countertops in our kitchen and 2 bathrooms. Ben's been wanting to do this for a long time (I don't really care, honestly), and a couple of months ago we saw the lowest prices we've ever seen for granite in a promo that Lowes was offering. Joseph and Mosey found a cat and a kitten prowling around. The manager (owner?) of the granite place offered to let us take all the kittens home (there are 4). My animal-loving boys would have totally gone for that, but I'm not sure Chrissy would ever forgive us. As we got in the car to leave, we discovered Brigham still in the car, crying! He couldn't find his shoes (100% typical), and by the time he found them and put them on, we had already left the car and were walking around. He couldn't see us, since we had gone down one of the rows of big granite slabs and were out of sight of the van. My poor boy looked briefly, couldn't find us, so he went back and sat in the car until we came back. We hadn't gone far! The yard wasn't that big! He could have easily found us! Sometimes it's easy for me to think of my boys as so big and independent, and in many ways they are, but then something like this happens and I realize they're still little boys. He didn't want to get lost. He felt abandoned by us. I felt terrible. So we waited a few minutes while Ben took Brigham out to look at the granite slabs set up in the yard. It was totally something Brigham would find interesting (and did), and when he got back in the car he was OK again.
4. We stopped at Souper Salad to eat on the way home. We haven't been to that place in 5 years! I loved it because there was plenty of stuff I could eat with my weird self-imposed restrictions (Ben was giving me a hard time about that all the way down I-35). It was fun to see what everyone chose to eat. Mosey ate fruit and nothing but fruit. Well, except for rootbeer. That is so totally Mosey-- he could live very happily on fruit and soda alone if I let him. Joseph got salad, and then proceeded to eat it WITH HIS FINGERS! What?? I am failing in my civilizing duties! Brigham discovered the joys of chocolate pudding and ate 2 or 3 helpings. On the way home, it was getting late (after 9:00) and the boys were all a little punch-drunk with fatigue I think, and serenaded Ben and me with rousing renditions of "X-O-P" and other nonsense all the way home.
2. Got my hair cut this afternoon. Afterward I failed in trying to register my car. The place I used to go is now only serving Williamson County. It's weird-- I've gone there several times for car-related stuff. I sat there for about 20 minutes until I figured it out, so not too much time wasted, I guess (it was 1 minute away from where I got my hair cut). Places like that are really fascinating for people-watching purposes. Everyone has to get their car registered, titles transferred, etc., so there's a real mix of all sorts of people from the county. As always, I am heart-warmed by the courtesy of the average Texan. I rarely have to open a door for myself when people see me coming on my crutches. And when I went inside and all the chairs were filled, two guys were quick to jump up and offer me theirs.
3. In the evening we drove up to Belton (way up, 25 miles north of Georgetown) to look at granite. We're putting granite countertops in our kitchen and 2 bathrooms. Ben's been wanting to do this for a long time (I don't really care, honestly), and a couple of months ago we saw the lowest prices we've ever seen for granite in a promo that Lowes was offering. Joseph and Mosey found a cat and a kitten prowling around. The manager (owner?) of the granite place offered to let us take all the kittens home (there are 4). My animal-loving boys would have totally gone for that, but I'm not sure Chrissy would ever forgive us. As we got in the car to leave, we discovered Brigham still in the car, crying! He couldn't find his shoes (100% typical), and by the time he found them and put them on, we had already left the car and were walking around. He couldn't see us, since we had gone down one of the rows of big granite slabs and were out of sight of the van. My poor boy looked briefly, couldn't find us, so he went back and sat in the car until we came back. We hadn't gone far! The yard wasn't that big! He could have easily found us! Sometimes it's easy for me to think of my boys as so big and independent, and in many ways they are, but then something like this happens and I realize they're still little boys. He didn't want to get lost. He felt abandoned by us. I felt terrible. So we waited a few minutes while Ben took Brigham out to look at the granite slabs set up in the yard. It was totally something Brigham would find interesting (and did), and when he got back in the car he was OK again.
4. We stopped at Souper Salad to eat on the way home. We haven't been to that place in 5 years! I loved it because there was plenty of stuff I could eat with my weird self-imposed restrictions (Ben was giving me a hard time about that all the way down I-35). It was fun to see what everyone chose to eat. Mosey ate fruit and nothing but fruit. Well, except for rootbeer. That is so totally Mosey-- he could live very happily on fruit and soda alone if I let him. Joseph got salad, and then proceeded to eat it WITH HIS FINGERS! What?? I am failing in my civilizing duties! Brigham discovered the joys of chocolate pudding and ate 2 or 3 helpings. On the way home, it was getting late (after 9:00) and the boys were all a little punch-drunk with fatigue I think, and serenaded Ben and me with rousing renditions of "X-O-P" and other nonsense all the way home.
05/24/2012
1. A friend dropped by this morning during school. He is a good friend from high school who moved to Austin a few years ago. I don't see him as often as I should, given how close we live to each other! And now I won't see him for a long while because he's going on a two-year "pilgrimage" around the United States. He bought a van and is going to travel the country! It sounds like a grand adventure. This particular friend has changed quite a lot from high school. I think he would acknowledge that! He is still a great person and fun to talk to, but he bears little resemblance to the person I met 20 years ago. It makes me wonder if people would say the same thing about me?
2. It was the first swim day of the season for me! Our art/music co-op evolves into swim days in the summer, and today was the first time I've ventured into the pool in 2012. I don't think it's going to be as hot this summer (knock on wood!!), but we've hit a few 90+ degree days so far, and that's plenty hot enough for the pool to feel good. My friend brought her baby and got in the pool with her, too! That little baby girl was so cute kicking and splashing in the water! Not good for my baby-hunger. :-) Late into the night I did research online about adopting internationally. The idea of adopting a disabled child is very intriguing to me. However, I think it would be very, very difficult to do because of my own disability. Not raising a disabled child, I am sure I could do that, but being accepted as an adoptive parent. China, at least, is really strict about the health of parents and I think it would be a very big long-shot. I wouldn't be interested in pursuing anything like that for a few years in any case. It probably isn't possible for me, but it's a nice dream, anyway.
3. Cello lessons for Mosey in the evening. I talked on the phone to my little sister while I waited for Mosey. Sigh... I miss my sisters. And, I made another real dinner tonight! Not too exciting-- rice and beans, and Mosey was, true to form, NOT excited about it. But when I informed him it was rice and beans or nothing, he did finally consent to eating some of the beans. He ate the whole plate up, and even got more. I think I'm making progress with this kid!
2. It was the first swim day of the season for me! Our art/music co-op evolves into swim days in the summer, and today was the first time I've ventured into the pool in 2012. I don't think it's going to be as hot this summer (knock on wood!!), but we've hit a few 90+ degree days so far, and that's plenty hot enough for the pool to feel good. My friend brought her baby and got in the pool with her, too! That little baby girl was so cute kicking and splashing in the water! Not good for my baby-hunger. :-) Late into the night I did research online about adopting internationally. The idea of adopting a disabled child is very intriguing to me. However, I think it would be very, very difficult to do because of my own disability. Not raising a disabled child, I am sure I could do that, but being accepted as an adoptive parent. China, at least, is really strict about the health of parents and I think it would be a very big long-shot. I wouldn't be interested in pursuing anything like that for a few years in any case. It probably isn't possible for me, but it's a nice dream, anyway.
3. Cello lessons for Mosey in the evening. I talked on the phone to my little sister while I waited for Mosey. Sigh... I miss my sisters. And, I made another real dinner tonight! Not too exciting-- rice and beans, and Mosey was, true to form, NOT excited about it. But when I informed him it was rice and beans or nothing, he did finally consent to eating some of the beans. He ate the whole plate up, and even got more. I think I'm making progress with this kid!
05/23/2012
1. Lessons in the morning, piano and violin lessons in the afternoon. Typical Wednesday. Piano lessons went well. Brigham seems to be bearing up a little better these days, although he is still hard on himself. I'm trying to remember to practice with him the day of his lesson, and really be detailed in looking over his assignments and the music. Brigham gets frustrated, but it's better to be nit-picky at home than be surprised at his lesson by things we hadn't remembered or hadn't noticed. Brigham's violin is really coming along. His sight-reading is getting good, and his teacher sent home the duet part to one of his Suzuki pieces. It was so fun to play with him! I ordered a few violin duet books on Amazon. I'm not sure he'll find it as fun as I do, but that's just too bad! :-)
2. Something truly monumental and important happened this afternoon on our way to piano lessons. Here is a picture of it:
How cool is that?? This has been a very good vehicle for us. Hardly any trouble for over 100,000 miles (knock on wood).
3. We stopped by the library on the way home from music lessons. I love the library-- so many good memories of summer trips to La Canada Library when I was a kid! I remember being so happy that I could walk to the library by myself after we moved into our Chevy Chase house. All summer long I'd go to the library every week or so and come home with a stack of books that I'd devour. My boys are almost old enough that I'd feel OK about them riding to the library on their bikes. It's a good 2-3 miles. But for now, I don't mind driving them. The boys are really good about loading and unloading my wheelchair into the back of the van, since browsing in the library is not a very crutch-friendly activity.
4. I made a real dinner tonight-- Swedish meatballs over brown rice. At first Mosey was pretty sure it was going to be disgusting, but surprised himself when he liked it! I gotta hand it to Mosey-- as quick (and rude) as he can be to condemn my cooking as "the most disgusting stuff in the world!", he is also quick to retract when he discovers otherwise. "This is the best food in the world, mom, you should make it all the time!" :-)
2. Something truly monumental and important happened this afternoon on our way to piano lessons. Here is a picture of it:
3. We stopped by the library on the way home from music lessons. I love the library-- so many good memories of summer trips to La Canada Library when I was a kid! I remember being so happy that I could walk to the library by myself after we moved into our Chevy Chase house. All summer long I'd go to the library every week or so and come home with a stack of books that I'd devour. My boys are almost old enough that I'd feel OK about them riding to the library on their bikes. It's a good 2-3 miles. But for now, I don't mind driving them. The boys are really good about loading and unloading my wheelchair into the back of the van, since browsing in the library is not a very crutch-friendly activity.
4. I made a real dinner tonight-- Swedish meatballs over brown rice. At first Mosey was pretty sure it was going to be disgusting, but surprised himself when he liked it! I gotta hand it to Mosey-- as quick (and rude) as he can be to condemn my cooking as "the most disgusting stuff in the world!", he is also quick to retract when he discovers otherwise. "This is the best food in the world, mom, you should make it all the time!" :-)
05/22/2012
1. Back to school today! It was actually OK. We took Monday off (obviously, driving home from Lubbock), and for some reason starting the school week off on Tuesday seems to go down a lot easier for my boys.
2. In the afternoon I took Joseph to flute lessons (make-up from yesterday's missed lessons). On the way home we talked cars. All the boys have been really into cars lately. Mosey and Joseph are obsessed with Kia Souls. It's not that they particularly like them, they just like to notice them and point them out. Funny boys. Anyway, Since I don't have a Y chromosome, I don't really get the whole car-obsession thing, but I try to play along. We had fun trying to identify the make of every car we passed by on the way home. It was hard! A fun family game sometime would be to have a contest to see who could correctly draw the most car maker symbols. I'd lose, but it would be fun!
Here are the boys with their boats. They painted them and put them together all by themselves. Yay!
3. In the evening was the boys' Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta. This was a fun event! Way less stressful than the pinewood derby, and more fun I think. The boys each got a little boat-kit to put together and paint. Then 4 rain gutters were set up on saw-horses and filled with water, and the boys took turns racing their boats by blowing into the sails to push the boat from one end of the rain gutter to the other. This is such a random thing, and has nothing whatever to do with how the boat is constructed or decorated. And they did a million heats, so everyone got a chance to come in first in at least one race, I think, and certainly all the boys realized that this was truly not much of a competition at all. Afterwards they swam in Brother Scott's pool, and Brother Scott spent an hour catching boys as they sped down the zip-line he has across his entire yard. If that was heaven for little boys (and it was), Brother Scott is a saint. :-)
4. We are reading "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" right now. All throughout the year, the boys have one book that they are reading (fiction-- not counting their history books and science books), and one that we are reading together. I remember reading this one when I was a kid. It's such a good book, but a difficult one to read aloud. I have a hard time with the "N" word. But one of the things I love best about this curriculum is the read-aloud element. Such a great opportunity for discussions about topics that wouldn't come up, otherwise.
2. In the afternoon I took Joseph to flute lessons (make-up from yesterday's missed lessons). On the way home we talked cars. All the boys have been really into cars lately. Mosey and Joseph are obsessed with Kia Souls. It's not that they particularly like them, they just like to notice them and point them out. Funny boys. Anyway, Since I don't have a Y chromosome, I don't really get the whole car-obsession thing, but I try to play along. We had fun trying to identify the make of every car we passed by on the way home. It was hard! A fun family game sometime would be to have a contest to see who could correctly draw the most car maker symbols. I'd lose, but it would be fun!
Here are the boys with their boats. They painted them and put them together all by themselves. Yay!
3. In the evening was the boys' Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta. This was a fun event! Way less stressful than the pinewood derby, and more fun I think. The boys each got a little boat-kit to put together and paint. Then 4 rain gutters were set up on saw-horses and filled with water, and the boys took turns racing their boats by blowing into the sails to push the boat from one end of the rain gutter to the other. This is such a random thing, and has nothing whatever to do with how the boat is constructed or decorated. And they did a million heats, so everyone got a chance to come in first in at least one race, I think, and certainly all the boys realized that this was truly not much of a competition at all. Afterwards they swam in Brother Scott's pool, and Brother Scott spent an hour catching boys as they sped down the zip-line he has across his entire yard. If that was heaven for little boys (and it was), Brother Scott is a saint. :-)
4. We are reading "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" right now. All throughout the year, the boys have one book that they are reading (fiction-- not counting their history books and science books), and one that we are reading together. I remember reading this one when I was a kid. It's such a good book, but a difficult one to read aloud. I have a hard time with the "N" word. But one of the things I love best about this curriculum is the read-aloud element. Such a great opportunity for discussions about topics that wouldn't come up, otherwise.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
05/21/2012
1. Before we left, the boys had to take full advantage of the joy of staying in a hotel room.
I think there is a gaming system connected to the hotel TV? We never could get the TV to work at all, but Joseph and Mosey sure had fun pretending to play video games. I don't get it. :-)
After getting dressed, the boys had to play their most favorite hotel game-- leaping from bed to bed. I don't let them do this at night for fear of us getting kicked out of the hotel when the downstairs neighbors complain of the earth-shaking thumps and bumps.
So much fun!!
2. The ride home was similarly non-eventful. Actually, the drive up and back was beautiful!! I never thought I'd ever use that adjective to describe driving through any part of west Texas, but it really was. I guess I've never driven across the state an any time other than July and August when everything is brown and dry and horrible. But it really was beautiful. Everything was green and growing and I could finally understand how pioneers making their way into Texas might think this was God's country.
3. We made it home by 4:30 or so, and then it was unpacking and cleaning up and making dinner and all the rest of the fun coming-home-from-a-trip stuff. Ben was happy to see us; Sandy was even happier. :-)
2. The ride home was similarly non-eventful. Actually, the drive up and back was beautiful!! I never thought I'd ever use that adjective to describe driving through any part of west Texas, but it really was. I guess I've never driven across the state an any time other than July and August when everything is brown and dry and horrible. But it really was beautiful. Everything was green and growing and I could finally understand how pioneers making their way into Texas might think this was God's country.
3. We made it home by 4:30 or so, and then it was unpacking and cleaning up and making dinner and all the rest of the fun coming-home-from-a-trip stuff. Ben was happy to see us; Sandy was even happier. :-)
05/20/2012
1. We went to church for the first 2 1/2 hours and then Mosey came and got me from Relief Society and the boys and I got in the car and got on the road!
2. The drive up to Lubbock was non-eventful. I didn't speed, didn't get pulled over, and didn't fall asleep at the wheel. All good things. :-) We listened to Huckleberry Finn and The Scorch Trials (2nd book in the Maze Runner trilogy), the boys ate nearly an entire huge box of goldfish crackers, and I nervously watched the clouds in the sky as we drove.
3. We made it up to Lubbock by 5:30, and found the Lubbock Lake Landmark where the Lubbock Astronomy Society was hosting an eclipse viewing party. The party officially started at 6:30, but I'm glad we got their early because shortly after we arrived, there developed a huge traffic jam of cars making their way up to the parking lot. I kept watching the western sky-- mostly cloudy at that point, getting more and more nervous. I called Ben and had him look at the weather radar for the area which updated every 15 minutes. We decided to buy the eclipse-viewing glasses and then head south to clearer skies. Well, the astronomy society ran out of eclipse glasses in about 3 minutes, and the organizers had to go back to their office and get more (poor planning anyone??), so Brigham waited in line for a LONG time-- at least an hour, but finally got us some glasses. Again, I was very glad we got there early, because the line was unbelievably long by the time they actually got the glasses there.
So, we finally got the glasses, got out of parking lot, stopped for gas, and headed south for Tahoka. The eclipse started as we were driving south, and the boys had a good view out of the side windows of the van. We got out of Lubbock and drove down into farm country, and, thankfully, out of the clouds. We turned off onto a small road heading out into the fields, turned off again onto a dirt road, and stopped to watch the eclipse. We were so glad we waited to get the glasses! There was no way to even begin to be able to see it with the naked eye-- way too bright. Way, way too bright even taking very brief glimpses with my sunglasses on. The eclipse glasses look like aluminum foil, and only let in the very brightest light. I took some pictures by putting the glasses up to my camera lens.
After a while, some wispy clouds moved over the sun, so we drive a few minutes further south on the dirt road until we had a clearer view, and watched the rest of the eclipse.
It was absolutely stunning. The boys were thrilled, and I was thrilled to see how thrilled they were!
4. The next thrilling thing was getting to stay in a hotel. Mosey especially LOVES hotels. I remember being excited about hotels, too (although I don't think my family ever actually stayed in a hotel-- motels were more our style). Ben got us a reservation for Hampton Inn, our favorite. Joseph won the contest over who got to sleep next to mom. :-)
Now for a whole lot of pictures.
Then I got the bright idea to cover up only half of my lens to get a perspective of the landscape.
At this point, enough of the sun was covered up that I could take the glasses off my camera lens-- you can see how much of the light had been blocked out by the glasses in the frames before this one. There were still some clouds, but look how dramatic the sun looks from behind them!
As the sun got lower and lower, it turned the deepest shade of crimson. My camera could not capture the color, but the boys, especially Brigham, were just captivated.
The boys thought it was awesome how the sun looked like a claw as it was descending past the horizon.
2. The drive up to Lubbock was non-eventful. I didn't speed, didn't get pulled over, and didn't fall asleep at the wheel. All good things. :-) We listened to Huckleberry Finn and The Scorch Trials (2nd book in the Maze Runner trilogy), the boys ate nearly an entire huge box of goldfish crackers, and I nervously watched the clouds in the sky as we drove.
3. We made it up to Lubbock by 5:30, and found the Lubbock Lake Landmark where the Lubbock Astronomy Society was hosting an eclipse viewing party. The party officially started at 6:30, but I'm glad we got their early because shortly after we arrived, there developed a huge traffic jam of cars making their way up to the parking lot. I kept watching the western sky-- mostly cloudy at that point, getting more and more nervous. I called Ben and had him look at the weather radar for the area which updated every 15 minutes. We decided to buy the eclipse-viewing glasses and then head south to clearer skies. Well, the astronomy society ran out of eclipse glasses in about 3 minutes, and the organizers had to go back to their office and get more (poor planning anyone??), so Brigham waited in line for a LONG time-- at least an hour, but finally got us some glasses. Again, I was very glad we got there early, because the line was unbelievably long by the time they actually got the glasses there.
So, we finally got the glasses, got out of parking lot, stopped for gas, and headed south for Tahoka. The eclipse started as we were driving south, and the boys had a good view out of the side windows of the van. We got out of Lubbock and drove down into farm country, and, thankfully, out of the clouds. We turned off onto a small road heading out into the fields, turned off again onto a dirt road, and stopped to watch the eclipse. We were so glad we waited to get the glasses! There was no way to even begin to be able to see it with the naked eye-- way too bright. Way, way too bright even taking very brief glimpses with my sunglasses on. The eclipse glasses look like aluminum foil, and only let in the very brightest light. I took some pictures by putting the glasses up to my camera lens.
After a while, some wispy clouds moved over the sun, so we drive a few minutes further south on the dirt road until we had a clearer view, and watched the rest of the eclipse.
It was absolutely stunning. The boys were thrilled, and I was thrilled to see how thrilled they were!
4. The next thrilling thing was getting to stay in a hotel. Mosey especially LOVES hotels. I remember being excited about hotels, too (although I don't think my family ever actually stayed in a hotel-- motels were more our style). Ben got us a reservation for Hampton Inn, our favorite. Joseph won the contest over who got to sleep next to mom. :-)
Now for a whole lot of pictures.
Mosey, sporting the super-stylish eclipse glasses.
Brigham and Joseph thought the top of the van was a good viewing spot.
After we drove down the road a bit more, all the boys stood out in the field for the best view.
I started out taking pictures with the glasses over my camera lens. You can see how the glasses blocked out ALL the light except from the sun.
Here's where the clouds started moving over the sun, so we got back in the car and drove a few minutes south down the bumpy dirt roads to a better place.
The ring of fire!
05/19/2012
1. Saturday! Laundry day. Lots of laundry. Ben and I ran some errands in the afternoon-- pool supply store, Walmart. Exciting. :-)
As I was doing laundry, I separated out some of Brigham's jeans that had reached the end of their life (Brigham is hard on jeans-- probably from all the tree climbing?). He asked if he could have a pair. A few minutes later I looked outside to see him doing this:
Ummm, WHY??
He put a bunch of cans of food into the legs of his pants, which he had duct-taped shut, then hung the pants on a nail on one of our back-porch posts, got the rubber snake from our animal box, and was attempting to destroy the pants by giving them a thorough snake-thrashing. Nope, I don't understand it either. At least he was having fun! :-)
2. My friend Traci and her son Joseph came over this afternoon-- the boys swam, she helped me fold laundry (the sign of a true friend), and then the boys came inside and made clay figurines. Mosey's on another clay kick, which means I've been spending more time than I'd really like "helping" him (i.e., he does about 1/2 of the project, and then asks me to "help" him finish, and then runs off to play while I finish "helping" him :-)).
3. After watching their Saturday night Star Trek episode, I went online to check on the time for the eclipse on Sunday. As I was reading an article on it, I mentioned to the boys that the best view in Texas would be in Lubbock. Joseph's eyes lit up and he said, "I wish we could go to Lubbock!" Before I really knew what was happening, we had planned a last-minute trip to Lubbock! I went to the grocery store, gassed up the car, and went to bed by 11:00 PM so I could drive the next day. Road trip!
As I was doing laundry, I separated out some of Brigham's jeans that had reached the end of their life (Brigham is hard on jeans-- probably from all the tree climbing?). He asked if he could have a pair. A few minutes later I looked outside to see him doing this:
Ummm, WHY??
He put a bunch of cans of food into the legs of his pants, which he had duct-taped shut, then hung the pants on a nail on one of our back-porch posts, got the rubber snake from our animal box, and was attempting to destroy the pants by giving them a thorough snake-thrashing. Nope, I don't understand it either. At least he was having fun! :-)
2. My friend Traci and her son Joseph came over this afternoon-- the boys swam, she helped me fold laundry (the sign of a true friend), and then the boys came inside and made clay figurines. Mosey's on another clay kick, which means I've been spending more time than I'd really like "helping" him (i.e., he does about 1/2 of the project, and then asks me to "help" him finish, and then runs off to play while I finish "helping" him :-)).
3. After watching their Saturday night Star Trek episode, I went online to check on the time for the eclipse on Sunday. As I was reading an article on it, I mentioned to the boys that the best view in Texas would be in Lubbock. Joseph's eyes lit up and he said, "I wish we could go to Lubbock!" Before I really knew what was happening, we had planned a last-minute trip to Lubbock! I went to the grocery store, gassed up the car, and went to bed by 11:00 PM so I could drive the next day. Road trip!
Saturday, May 19, 2012
05/18/2012
1. Friday! I woke up happy this morning because last night I totally cleaned off organized the table in my room. The table had become a repository for any item that someone was not sure of where it belonged. I also reorganized a couple of shelves on the game shelf next to the table. The result is a beautifully cleaned-off table, a box with neatly organized and accessible sheet music, and an empty shelf where I can leave my violin so I don't have to take it in and out of my case. I really love organizing spaces. I'm not so great at *keeping* them organized, but it is such a satisfying feeling to create order out of chaos.
2. When I came out of my room this morning, Mosey was already up. When he saw me he said, "I'm making you a present for Mother's Day, mom, so don't come into the kitchen!" In a few minutes I heard the oven beep, and then he brought me the sweetest little modeling-clay flower that he had made and baked for me. I'm going to find a pin to glue it to, or maybe a clip, so I can wear it to church. I love my sweet boy.
3. Speaking of modeling clay, Mosey is currently in clay-sculpture-making-mode. Mosey is like that-- he gets very intense about something for a while, then cycles through to something else. It's back to the modeling clay now after leaving the clay on the shelf in the playroom for a few weeks. I had to drag him away from one of his projects in order for him to get his schoolwork done. And then of course I got recruited into helping him finish the intricate detail work, which was perhaps not my very first choice of leisure activity for the day (given the fact that I currently have 7 loads of clean laundry in the laundry room that need folding-- yikes!). But it was one of those mommy-things that I needed to take the time to do with my boy, and I'm glad I did. He and I made a really cool 4-axle tanker truck. It took a while to make, but ended up pretty nice.
4. Tonight after Ben got home, we went out to eat at How We Roll down at the Domain. I think I've written about it before, but it's a fun fast-food-sushi place that all of us like. And it is gluten and dairy free, so I can eat there too! Once home again, the boys watched a Star Trek episode, and then I sent them to bed so I could pick up the house in peace.
2. When I came out of my room this morning, Mosey was already up. When he saw me he said, "I'm making you a present for Mother's Day, mom, so don't come into the kitchen!" In a few minutes I heard the oven beep, and then he brought me the sweetest little modeling-clay flower that he had made and baked for me. I'm going to find a pin to glue it to, or maybe a clip, so I can wear it to church. I love my sweet boy.
3. Speaking of modeling clay, Mosey is currently in clay-sculpture-making-mode. Mosey is like that-- he gets very intense about something for a while, then cycles through to something else. It's back to the modeling clay now after leaving the clay on the shelf in the playroom for a few weeks. I had to drag him away from one of his projects in order for him to get his schoolwork done. And then of course I got recruited into helping him finish the intricate detail work, which was perhaps not my very first choice of leisure activity for the day (given the fact that I currently have 7 loads of clean laundry in the laundry room that need folding-- yikes!). But it was one of those mommy-things that I needed to take the time to do with my boy, and I'm glad I did. He and I made a really cool 4-axle tanker truck. It took a while to make, but ended up pretty nice.
4. Tonight after Ben got home, we went out to eat at How We Roll down at the Domain. I think I've written about it before, but it's a fun fast-food-sushi place that all of us like. And it is gluten and dairy free, so I can eat there too! Once home again, the boys watched a Star Trek episode, and then I sent them to bed so I could pick up the house in peace.
05/17/2012
1. Typical Thursday. The boys and I had a great discussion during history. They are using 3 different history texts this year: Landmark History of the American People, The Story of the USA, and A History of US. The Story of the USA is a series of 4 workbooks with short chapters followed by a couple of pages of comprehension questions. This has been the boys' least favorite because it is not advanced enough for them. Still, I have them read the chapters and answer the questions, mainly for the practice of reading, then going back and scanning the text to find the answers to the questions, and of course the actual physical writing itself. Anyway, the last couple of chapters we have read have been egregiously left-biased. When I pre-read them, at first I was inclined to have the boys skip them. In fact, I wrote out SKIP across the pages of one of the chapters. But then I thought better of it, and I'm glad I did. It was a great chance to show them exactly what many kids in public schools are being taught as fact. It was an opportunity to show how the author's personal bias showed through, and how to identify subjective opinion versus objective fact. And, mostly, it was a chance to then vigorously refute some of the foolishness printed as "history." I got a little animated, and the boys thought it was great fun. :-) Brigham, especially was loving it. He is my little conservative tea-partier (well, sort of), and tends to get outraged at many things we read about in history, or that he hears about on the news. I try to help him see some of the nuance in various issues, and to recognize the complicated aspects of historical figures. I hope to teach him that very few people are all right or all wrong, all good, or all bad. Except maybe Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and a few others who were pretty much pure evil.
2. The kids went swimming in the afternoon for our art group, which I think is now mostly a swim and play group for the summer. Sandy LOVES to swim, and she was in heaven with all those kids in the pool. They'd jump in, she'd jump in after them, they'd throw sticks in the water, she'd splash after them and bring them back. I guess it's good-- fewer dog baths to worry about!
3. After cello lessons, Mosey and I stopped by a house in the neighborhood-- they were selling a few cello supplies-- a cello stand, folding music stand, and tuner/metronome. Mosey was really excited about the metronome. He got it out as soon as we were back in the car, examining the instructions to figure it out. It has the ability to determine the frequency of a tone, and thereby assist with tuning. Mosey thought it was really fun to make bizarre noises all the way back home, to see how they registered on the tuner. Funny boy. :-)
4. When we got home, Mosey sweet-talked Ben into playing baseball with the boys outside while I finished making dinner. I would love to get Mosey on a softball team because I think he would like it a lot. I'm just not sure we'll be able to find ANY spare time for another practice during the week. We'll see-- maybe over the summer.
2. The kids went swimming in the afternoon for our art group, which I think is now mostly a swim and play group for the summer. Sandy LOVES to swim, and she was in heaven with all those kids in the pool. They'd jump in, she'd jump in after them, they'd throw sticks in the water, she'd splash after them and bring them back. I guess it's good-- fewer dog baths to worry about!
3. After cello lessons, Mosey and I stopped by a house in the neighborhood-- they were selling a few cello supplies-- a cello stand, folding music stand, and tuner/metronome. Mosey was really excited about the metronome. He got it out as soon as we were back in the car, examining the instructions to figure it out. It has the ability to determine the frequency of a tone, and thereby assist with tuning. Mosey thought it was really fun to make bizarre noises all the way back home, to see how they registered on the tuner. Funny boy. :-)
4. When we got home, Mosey sweet-talked Ben into playing baseball with the boys outside while I finished making dinner. I would love to get Mosey on a softball team because I think he would like it a lot. I'm just not sure we'll be able to find ANY spare time for another practice during the week. We'll see-- maybe over the summer.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
05/16/2012
1. I made a great recipe tonight-- Broccoli curry soup. At least, I liked it. And the boys ate some, too! Brigham ate a whole bowl. Ben, however, did not try it. :-)
Here's how I made it:
One small onion diced.
Sautee in a soup pot with olive oil, 1/4 tsp cumin, and 2-3 tsp curry powder, until onion is soft and translucent.
Add 2 cups chicken broth, and 2 cups water.
Add broccoli. I used two smallish heads of broccoli.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Blend until smooth in a blender.
Add one can lite coconut milk.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
I also added garlic salt and a little stevia (sugar substitute) at the end.
The curry flavor is quite mild and it is not spicy.
I also made apple-cinnamon pancakes for my non-curry-loving family members. A bit of a weird combination-- apple cinnamon pancakes and broccoli curry soup, but everyone ate and was happy, so it's all good.
2. I was less stressed out today. I decided I wasn't going to stress about the boys finishing up their schoolwork before piano lessons. As it was, Joseph was the only one who finished, and Brigham still didn't finish tonight, but oh well. I am learning some things for how to make next year work better. By the time my boys graduate and go off to college, I'll have it figured out. :-)
3. The 3rd builder came out again today with several subcontractors-- electrical, concrete, framing, plumbing, A/C. We still won't get a bid from him for probably almost 2 weeks, but I think I can be very confident that whatever number he gives us will be accurate. There won't be any surprises. We got bids back from the other two guys who came. The first guy's bid is $25K less than the other. But he seemed the least exact of the three of them. The other two asked questions and looked around the house and property more than he did, so I wonder if there might be surprise costs that would come up over the course of the building. I'll have to see what this 3rd guy comes up with.
I try to keep Ben apprised, and so far he hasn't put the kibosh on the project. He doesn't have that much to say about it, though, which worries me. I want him to be on board and involved, or at least interested. I know his dream still is to find the perfect lot and either build, or add-on to an existing house. He's been looking at some property down on Spicewood Springs Rd., which is a really beautiful area, but the land parcels are big-- 8-9 acres, and would need to be subdivided, if they even can be. It seems so complicated, and so long-term. If we did something like that, it would be (I'm thinking) at LEAST a year before there was something ready for us to move into. And it would undoubtedly be a lot more expensive. But I'm willing if he can find something that he really loves and would work for us. I just don't know how long that will take, and I'm not willing to wait indefinitely.
I keep praying and feeling good about building, but I'm not sure he's there yet.
Here's how I made it:
One small onion diced.
Sautee in a soup pot with olive oil, 1/4 tsp cumin, and 2-3 tsp curry powder, until onion is soft and translucent.
Add 2 cups chicken broth, and 2 cups water.
Add broccoli. I used two smallish heads of broccoli.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Blend until smooth in a blender.
Add one can lite coconut milk.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
I also added garlic salt and a little stevia (sugar substitute) at the end.
The curry flavor is quite mild and it is not spicy.
I also made apple-cinnamon pancakes for my non-curry-loving family members. A bit of a weird combination-- apple cinnamon pancakes and broccoli curry soup, but everyone ate and was happy, so it's all good.
2. I was less stressed out today. I decided I wasn't going to stress about the boys finishing up their schoolwork before piano lessons. As it was, Joseph was the only one who finished, and Brigham still didn't finish tonight, but oh well. I am learning some things for how to make next year work better. By the time my boys graduate and go off to college, I'll have it figured out. :-)
3. The 3rd builder came out again today with several subcontractors-- electrical, concrete, framing, plumbing, A/C. We still won't get a bid from him for probably almost 2 weeks, but I think I can be very confident that whatever number he gives us will be accurate. There won't be any surprises. We got bids back from the other two guys who came. The first guy's bid is $25K less than the other. But he seemed the least exact of the three of them. The other two asked questions and looked around the house and property more than he did, so I wonder if there might be surprise costs that would come up over the course of the building. I'll have to see what this 3rd guy comes up with.
I try to keep Ben apprised, and so far he hasn't put the kibosh on the project. He doesn't have that much to say about it, though, which worries me. I want him to be on board and involved, or at least interested. I know his dream still is to find the perfect lot and either build, or add-on to an existing house. He's been looking at some property down on Spicewood Springs Rd., which is a really beautiful area, but the land parcels are big-- 8-9 acres, and would need to be subdivided, if they even can be. It seems so complicated, and so long-term. If we did something like that, it would be (I'm thinking) at LEAST a year before there was something ready for us to move into. And it would undoubtedly be a lot more expensive. But I'm willing if he can find something that he really loves and would work for us. I just don't know how long that will take, and I'm not willing to wait indefinitely.
I keep praying and feeling good about building, but I'm not sure he's there yet.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
05/15/2012
I don't really have three things tonight. I was very stressed out today. I am not sure why. Every once in a while I get super-stressed out over little things. Today it was my boys not getting all their work done, and the house being disorganized. In general my house is OK. It's fairly organized, fairly picked up. Just don't look too close. :-) But when I do look close, I get more and more anxious. The computer table in the playroom, for example, has a bunch of random stuff on it. Little toys, papers, legos, CD's, stuff like that. The table in my room has books, papers, scout stuff, piles of music, and fabric piled on it. My computer desk right now has got cups, cameras, a little first aid kit, an apple core, a half-eaten can of apricots, a couple of books, you get the picture. I'll find random socks lying around, unmatched shoes, drawings, stuffed animals, and the like stashed here and there. Every one of these displaced items laying around start to wear on my nerves, until I finally snap at the rolled up socks (unmatched, of course) I find under the table.
I spend SO MANY HOURS of my life picking up and putting away little things like this. My husband and kids are pretty good about doing the broad-strokes of picking up, but they are not quite as good about actually finishing the job.
I am considering taking a week and ONLY putting away things that are my direct responsibility. The house would be absolutely chaotic at the end of it. Could my nerves take it? I think it might be the only way to get these boys (big and small) to see the mess that they leave behind. Because that is most of it-- I believe they really don't see the mess! Things look fine to them-- when the biggest bulk of the mess is cleaned up, they really don't see the rest.
I will try not to let myself get so on edge tomorrow.
I spend SO MANY HOURS of my life picking up and putting away little things like this. My husband and kids are pretty good about doing the broad-strokes of picking up, but they are not quite as good about actually finishing the job.
I am considering taking a week and ONLY putting away things that are my direct responsibility. The house would be absolutely chaotic at the end of it. Could my nerves take it? I think it might be the only way to get these boys (big and small) to see the mess that they leave behind. Because that is most of it-- I believe they really don't see the mess! Things look fine to them-- when the biggest bulk of the mess is cleaned up, they really don't see the rest.
I will try not to let myself get so on edge tomorrow.
05/14/2012
1. Monday. It was a pretty good Monday because we didn't do regular lessons. The boys each had a couple of assignments left over from last week, and practicing, but otherwise it was pretty free for them. I managed to be busy all day, and yet I feel like I didn't accomplish much. I was a little stressed out and on edge. I'm not exactly sure why. The house was a little grimy this morning (floors are in need of a mop, the table and cupboards did not get washed last night), but it wasn't that bad. I have laundry to do (as usual), but we're not at a crisis point yet. We had things to finish, but not too much. I'm not sure what it was. Probably sugar withdrawal. I'm not kidding! I hope it passes quickly. :-)
Tomorrow I resolve to not act stressed out. What good does it do except make everyone else stressed out?
2. I finished a book yesterday called "The Shallows." I highly, highly recommend it. It was fascinating and horrifying all at once. Seriously. I want to throw away the computer and our cell phones and maybe move to an Amish community. OK, maybe not that last bit. I constantly marvel at how fast time passes (I obsess about it on this blog), and it worries me that my kids often say the same thing. Time did not pass that quickly for me when I was a kid. I know a certain acceleration of time is a part of aging, but I can't help but think that the speed-obsessed world we live in right now is also contributing greatly to this sense of accelerated time. I remember watching a movie once about a person who got a remote control that could fast-forward through time. At first he used it only to fast-forward through particularly irksome things-- past a sickness or a boring dinner. But gradually he uses it more and more until it gets a life of its own and starts skipping past years of his life. OK, maybe melodramatic, but I wonder if our obsession with speed, with immediacy, may be coming with a price? The price of not being able to hang on to the moment, but finding ourselves caught up in a fast-forward motion of our own. Anyway, everyone should get this book and read it.
3. Mosey is on a mission to repair all his 5 billion stuffed animals. He loves his stuffed animals, and they get a lot of use. Since getting Sandy, she has also put some of Mosey's stuffed animals through some unwanted use. :-) Today he got out needle and thread and started trying to repair some of them that have stuffing leaking from various rips and tears. It was not a great day for me to help him with a great big project like that, and I'm afraid I wasn't very accommodating. I did sew up a few split seams, and showed him how to thread and knot a needle, and tried to show him the basic technique to repair split seams. He worked on his animals for quite some time, and actually did a pretty fair job of it! Mosey is always very confident in learning new skills.
Tomorrow I resolve to not act stressed out. What good does it do except make everyone else stressed out?
2. I finished a book yesterday called "The Shallows." I highly, highly recommend it. It was fascinating and horrifying all at once. Seriously. I want to throw away the computer and our cell phones and maybe move to an Amish community. OK, maybe not that last bit. I constantly marvel at how fast time passes (I obsess about it on this blog), and it worries me that my kids often say the same thing. Time did not pass that quickly for me when I was a kid. I know a certain acceleration of time is a part of aging, but I can't help but think that the speed-obsessed world we live in right now is also contributing greatly to this sense of accelerated time. I remember watching a movie once about a person who got a remote control that could fast-forward through time. At first he used it only to fast-forward through particularly irksome things-- past a sickness or a boring dinner. But gradually he uses it more and more until it gets a life of its own and starts skipping past years of his life. OK, maybe melodramatic, but I wonder if our obsession with speed, with immediacy, may be coming with a price? The price of not being able to hang on to the moment, but finding ourselves caught up in a fast-forward motion of our own. Anyway, everyone should get this book and read it.
3. Mosey is on a mission to repair all his 5 billion stuffed animals. He loves his stuffed animals, and they get a lot of use. Since getting Sandy, she has also put some of Mosey's stuffed animals through some unwanted use. :-) Today he got out needle and thread and started trying to repair some of them that have stuffing leaking from various rips and tears. It was not a great day for me to help him with a great big project like that, and I'm afraid I wasn't very accommodating. I did sew up a few split seams, and showed him how to thread and knot a needle, and tried to show him the basic technique to repair split seams. He worked on his animals for quite some time, and actually did a pretty fair job of it! Mosey is always very confident in learning new skills.
Happy Mother's Day to my mama
I know I've talked about how much I love going through the old scanned slides that my father took as I was growing up. He wasn't the best photographer in the world, but he did a really good job documenting the important events of our lives, and he had a good eye for special moments as well.
In thinking about my own mom yesterday, I went looking specifically for pictures of my mom with each of her babies. My sister did this on her own blog and beat me to the punch, so I won't put all of them up. But here are a couple that I just loved. They are very different, but I love both of them.
OK, here is the first:
What is not to love about this picture?!
My mom had my sister in 1974, me in 1976, Naomi in 1978, Brigham in 1980, Rachel and Jacob in 1984, Benjamin in 1987, Abraham in 1989, Christian in 1991, and Eva in 1994. So there was never a time in my whole growing up years when there was not a baby or toddler (or two or three) in the house. I always knew I wanted to be a mother. I remember as a very little girl, dancing around to, "When I grow up, I want to be a mother! And have a family! One little, two little, three little babies of my own." There has never been a time in my life when I had any hesitation about wanting to have children of my own. My mom was and is such a good example of the fulfillment and happiness there is in being a mother. I am so very grateful to her for the gift of each of my siblings in my life.
Here is the other one:
This is one of those magical moments that my dad captured on film. This was probably early morning, as he was getting up to get ready for work. He worked in downtown L.A. and I remember that he left very early to beat the traffic. I'm not sure if Rosalynde crawled into bed with my mom after my dad got up to get ready, or if he had been banished by the tyranny of babies and toddlers. Either way, I'm sure this was a very common sight in the wee hours of the morning in those days in that house on Harmony Place.
I love the peaceful sleeping faces, skin glowing in the early morning light, the muted colors, and the utter serenity of the moment. My mom looks like a sleeping angel here, doesn't she? She is still the shining center of our family, and we will always be drawn to her light.
In thinking about my own mom yesterday, I went looking specifically for pictures of my mom with each of her babies. My sister did this on her own blog and beat me to the punch, so I won't put all of them up. But here are a couple that I just loved. They are very different, but I love both of them.
OK, here is the first:
My mom had my sister in 1974, me in 1976, Naomi in 1978, Brigham in 1980, Rachel and Jacob in 1984, Benjamin in 1987, Abraham in 1989, Christian in 1991, and Eva in 1994. So there was never a time in my whole growing up years when there was not a baby or toddler (or two or three) in the house. I always knew I wanted to be a mother. I remember as a very little girl, dancing around to, "When I grow up, I want to be a mother! And have a family! One little, two little, three little babies of my own." There has never been a time in my life when I had any hesitation about wanting to have children of my own. My mom was and is such a good example of the fulfillment and happiness there is in being a mother. I am so very grateful to her for the gift of each of my siblings in my life.
Here is the other one:
I love the peaceful sleeping faces, skin glowing in the early morning light, the muted colors, and the utter serenity of the moment. My mom looks like a sleeping angel here, doesn't she? She is still the shining center of our family, and we will always be drawn to her light.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Mothers Day 2012
I had a beautiful Mothers Day. We have morning church, so it was the usual morning rush, but church made up for it. The boys all went up to sing with the primary kids during Sacrament Meeting. Brigham and Joseph will only go up there to sing for me one more time before they graduate from primary. I'm really not much of a crier (at all), but I was fighting back tears seeing my boys up there, especially when they all pointed to me during one of the songs ("That's my mother!"). I'm so lucky to be their mother. I remember too well how painful Mother's Day was for the first several years of our marriage. The contrast makes it all the sweeter for me today.
After church I went out on the back porch and read a book in peace and quiet for more than 2 hours! That's the best Mother's Day gift any mother can get, let me tell you. Then the boys all made dinner for me-- parmesan tilapia, asparagus, and diced potatoes. And they cleaned it up, too! (Mostly.)
I had to milk Mother's Day for all it is worth, and talked them into taking some pictures. I sure do love being a mother. It's all I've ever really wanted to do.
After church I went out on the back porch and read a book in peace and quiet for more than 2 hours! That's the best Mother's Day gift any mother can get, let me tell you. Then the boys all made dinner for me-- parmesan tilapia, asparagus, and diced potatoes. And they cleaned it up, too! (Mostly.)
I had to milk Mother's Day for all it is worth, and talked them into taking some pictures. I sure do love being a mother. It's all I've ever really wanted to do.
05/12/2012
1. Typical Saturday. Archery for Joseph in the morning, grocery shopping, chores, etc. Nothing special.
2. I'm working on editing all the pictures my family has with my brother Jacob. I was hoping to get it done for Mother's Day, but it didn't happen. I've worked on it a lot of hours so far, and I'm more than halfway through, but it's going to take me another week I think. There are almost 450 pictures! I'm so, so glad that Daddy liked taking pictures. It is pretty emotional for me to go through them. A lot of memories come back. You know what, I remember very few unhappy memories from my childhood. I know I had unhappy times, but I don't remember them. That gives me a lot of hope for my own children. :-) Also, I find the memory totally fascinating. I love looking in the background of some of these pictures. There are little objects that have long-since disappeared or been packed away, and which I have not thought of in years and years and years. And yet when I see them, I remember! OK, it sounds obvious, but what that means to me is that there are far more memories locked away in some inaccessible part of my brain that I could get to if only there were some sort of trigger. I have such a spotty memory of my childhood. I'm amazed at some of the memoirs I have read-- the level of detail that people remember from childhood. I can't even remember that kind of detail from 5 years ago! I guess that's why I keep a blog. Anyway, I think in our perfected state, we will have access to every memory, every moment of our lives. I will love that.
3. I got to talk to my brother Christian! Our family did a conference call for his Mothers Day call home. He's been on his mission in France for about 16 months now, and I hadn't spoken to him in a year, since I missed the Christmas phone call. The next time I talk to him will be when he comes home. It was so great hearing his voice. I can't wait till he gets home, although I know he doesn't feel the same way. :-) And boy, oh, boy, can I ever WAIT until it is my boys' turn to leave me for 2 years. :-)
2. I'm working on editing all the pictures my family has with my brother Jacob. I was hoping to get it done for Mother's Day, but it didn't happen. I've worked on it a lot of hours so far, and I'm more than halfway through, but it's going to take me another week I think. There are almost 450 pictures! I'm so, so glad that Daddy liked taking pictures. It is pretty emotional for me to go through them. A lot of memories come back. You know what, I remember very few unhappy memories from my childhood. I know I had unhappy times, but I don't remember them. That gives me a lot of hope for my own children. :-) Also, I find the memory totally fascinating. I love looking in the background of some of these pictures. There are little objects that have long-since disappeared or been packed away, and which I have not thought of in years and years and years. And yet when I see them, I remember! OK, it sounds obvious, but what that means to me is that there are far more memories locked away in some inaccessible part of my brain that I could get to if only there were some sort of trigger. I have such a spotty memory of my childhood. I'm amazed at some of the memoirs I have read-- the level of detail that people remember from childhood. I can't even remember that kind of detail from 5 years ago! I guess that's why I keep a blog. Anyway, I think in our perfected state, we will have access to every memory, every moment of our lives. I will love that.
3. I got to talk to my brother Christian! Our family did a conference call for his Mothers Day call home. He's been on his mission in France for about 16 months now, and I hadn't spoken to him in a year, since I missed the Christmas phone call. The next time I talk to him will be when he comes home. It was so great hearing his voice. I can't wait till he gets home, although I know he doesn't feel the same way. :-) And boy, oh, boy, can I ever WAIT until it is my boys' turn to leave me for 2 years. :-)
05/11/2012
1. Sunshine today! Well, part of the day anyway. Naturally, they cancel the father-son campout the day before, and the day of turns out to be sunny. It's OK, I can't imagine the soggy muddiness that the campground would have been. I love the rain, and I really, really love the sunshine after rain.
2. After Ben got home from work, we took the boys to the mall to eat dinner at the food court, and then see Avengers. We met up with our friend Traci and her son Joseph. Ben ate with us, and then went back home to work while the rest of us stayed for the movie. It was surprisingly good! I was skeptical-- it seemed like way too many stars for one movie, but it ended up working. I definitely liked it better than Thor. :-) We had seen Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. Now we need to track down Hulk, and whatever the other two movies were with Natasha and the Hawk guy. Maybe for next weekend!
3. Joseph (Traci's son) spent the night at our house. I'm not sure how much sleep any of them got. But, it was a good consolation prize for missing the campout anyway.
2. After Ben got home from work, we took the boys to the mall to eat dinner at the food court, and then see Avengers. We met up with our friend Traci and her son Joseph. Ben ate with us, and then went back home to work while the rest of us stayed for the movie. It was surprisingly good! I was skeptical-- it seemed like way too many stars for one movie, but it ended up working. I definitely liked it better than Thor. :-) We had seen Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. Now we need to track down Hulk, and whatever the other two movies were with Natasha and the Hawk guy. Maybe for next weekend!
3. Joseph (Traci's son) spent the night at our house. I'm not sure how much sleep any of them got. But, it was a good consolation prize for missing the campout anyway.
Friday, May 11, 2012
05/10/2012
1. Rain again today! I am so glad we're getting this rain. Still, it's amazing how even a few consecutive days of grey weather starts to pull my spirits down a little. Not too much though. The only bad thing about the rain is that the fathers and sons camp out is supposed to be this weekend. 2 years ago the same thing happened and the boys were so disappointed. If they cancel it (and they're going to be awfully soggy if they don't), I've told the boys we'll have a sleepover here and they can invite some friends. I won't get my quiet evening alone, but that's OK.
2. It was a good school day. I think everyone got everything done except for spelling. We're kind of dropping the ball with spelling these last few weeks.
3. I dropped off cookies at some of my visiting teaching ladies' homes and got waylaid at the second one. She happened to be waiting for a few friends to come by for dinner and she invited me to stay. I felt a bit like a 5th wheel, since these ladies all knew each other, and I did not, but I'm glad I stayed. One of the ladies was here from Arizona to give a talk and class on nutrition. She has MS and has managed it through her diet. Her recommendations remind me a lot of the recommendations I've been seeing in a couple of other places, and which I've tried to incorporate somewhat over the past few months. I haven't been as serious about it as I should have, and I'm now inspired to really give it a shot. The one thing I really, really need to work on is my sugar intake. I have a sweet-tooth, and an apple just doesn't cut it. :-) But sugar is so inflammatory and that is what I am trying hardest to reduce, so the sugar has to go. It's something our whole family can probably improve on, so I'm going to have to talk with the boys about not keeping candy in the house, and not having "treats" every single day. It's gonna be hard. I've done the "No sugar November" thing a couple of times, and I have to admit it wasn't very fun. I was very glad when Thanksgiving came around. But lots of people who cut out sugar say that after a while the cravings go away, so I must have faith that will happen for me.
So, I'm going to be brave and say that May 11 will be the day I end my love-affair with sugar. Wish me luck!
2. It was a good school day. I think everyone got everything done except for spelling. We're kind of dropping the ball with spelling these last few weeks.
3. I dropped off cookies at some of my visiting teaching ladies' homes and got waylaid at the second one. She happened to be waiting for a few friends to come by for dinner and she invited me to stay. I felt a bit like a 5th wheel, since these ladies all knew each other, and I did not, but I'm glad I stayed. One of the ladies was here from Arizona to give a talk and class on nutrition. She has MS and has managed it through her diet. Her recommendations remind me a lot of the recommendations I've been seeing in a couple of other places, and which I've tried to incorporate somewhat over the past few months. I haven't been as serious about it as I should have, and I'm now inspired to really give it a shot. The one thing I really, really need to work on is my sugar intake. I have a sweet-tooth, and an apple just doesn't cut it. :-) But sugar is so inflammatory and that is what I am trying hardest to reduce, so the sugar has to go. It's something our whole family can probably improve on, so I'm going to have to talk with the boys about not keeping candy in the house, and not having "treats" every single day. It's gonna be hard. I've done the "No sugar November" thing a couple of times, and I have to admit it wasn't very fun. I was very glad when Thanksgiving came around. But lots of people who cut out sugar say that after a while the cravings go away, so I must have faith that will happen for me.
So, I'm going to be brave and say that May 11 will be the day I end my love-affair with sugar. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
05/09/2012
1. We did normal school today, even though Melissa was here. She said she didn't mind, and maybe she really didn't since she came here straight from staying for 3 weeks at a Kentucky hospital with her critically ill mother, and she said what she really needed was some time to relax and take a nap and having nothing to do. Wish granted! She got to observe our routine of lessons and practicing and piano lessons. I've decided that the key to having a well-oiled school routine around here is to have a non-related observer. Seriously, the boys were so good and did their work so happily. It was great.
2. Melissa's husband Glenn flew in to Austin tonight, so the boys and I picked up Ben from work and had dinner with Melissa and Glenn at Threadgills before they had to drive down to San Antonio. Mosey took a look at the children's menu, then looked at the regular menu, and promptly informed Ben and I that he wanted the sirloin steak. This kid's got expensive tastes. :-) Ben and Glenn are just as good friends as Melissa and I are, and it was so good to spend time with them again. I hated saying goodbye to them.
3. Somehow I managed to forget to take a single picture with Melissa here. :-(
2. Melissa's husband Glenn flew in to Austin tonight, so the boys and I picked up Ben from work and had dinner with Melissa and Glenn at Threadgills before they had to drive down to San Antonio. Mosey took a look at the children's menu, then looked at the regular menu, and promptly informed Ben and I that he wanted the sirloin steak. This kid's got expensive tastes. :-) Ben and Glenn are just as good friends as Melissa and I are, and it was so good to spend time with them again. I hated saying goodbye to them.
3. Somehow I managed to forget to take a single picture with Melissa here. :-(
005/08/2012
1. My best friend from Florida came to visit! Her daughter is graduating from boot camp in San Antonio this weekend, and she had an extra couple of days so she came to visit me! We talked and talked and talked some more, and then talked some more after that! We drove around Austin (in the rain), and I think I have her convinced that she wants to move to Austin. :-) The boys enjoyed showing her their lizards (which she was happy to look at from several feet away :-)), playing their recital songs from the rash of recitals the last couple of weeks, and in general reveling in the attention from their long-lost second mom.
2. I also folded 6 loads of laundry today (while talking to Melissa). I guess some things never change. I have never in my life been able to discipline myself to keep up with laundry in a normal way. There is always a bottleneck. I remember many times in Florida gathering the dirty laundry from the bedrooms upstairs, and throwing it downstairs over the balcony (laundry room downstairs + all the bedrooms upstairs = a big pain in the neck), and then spending hours sorting the mountain of laundry, washing, and then folding. I never had a system, so I'd wait until we were in dire need, and then do a laundry marathon. Melissa remembers this very well, I am sure. Laundry is still my very least favorite chore.
3. We at at Rudy's for dinner (of course!). Another reason for Melissa to move to Austin. I bought way too much food, but leftovers from Rudy's is not necessarily a bad thing.
2. I also folded 6 loads of laundry today (while talking to Melissa). I guess some things never change. I have never in my life been able to discipline myself to keep up with laundry in a normal way. There is always a bottleneck. I remember many times in Florida gathering the dirty laundry from the bedrooms upstairs, and throwing it downstairs over the balcony (laundry room downstairs + all the bedrooms upstairs = a big pain in the neck), and then spending hours sorting the mountain of laundry, washing, and then folding. I never had a system, so I'd wait until we were in dire need, and then do a laundry marathon. Melissa remembers this very well, I am sure. Laundry is still my very least favorite chore.
3. We at at Rudy's for dinner (of course!). Another reason for Melissa to move to Austin. I bought way too much food, but leftovers from Rudy's is not necessarily a bad thing.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
05/07/2012
1. We got some awesome thunderstorms tonight. Thunderstorms are my absolute favorite kind of weather. As long as they don't involve giant hail stones or tornadoes. :-) The sky had been threatening rain for a couple of hours, getting really dark long before sunset. Finally, as I was getting dinner on the table, the clouds broke open and it started pouring down rain. Mosey immediately got his swimming suit on and went out back to run around in the rain until the lightning got too close for my peace of mind. We opened all the kitchen windows and ate dinner to the wonderful sound of rain-- glorious, blessed rain that we need so much!
2. It was a pretty good Monday! My friend from Florida is coming to visit tomorrow, so the boys decided instead of taking the day off (which last week we had decided to do since Mondays are just too hard), they'd do most of their schoolwork so there isn't too much to finish up tomorrow before Melissa gets here. I can't wait to see her!
3. We finished Little Britches today. What is with the fathers dying in two books in a row?? (Cheaper by the Dozen and Little Britches) So sad. It's hard trying to keep my composure so I can finish reading the book aloud. We're reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry next, which, if I am dredging my memory even remotely accurately is also not an easy read. It's all good stuff, though.
4. I'm going through all my family's pictures from 1984-1989 for a project I'm working on (I've barely gotten through 1984 yet-- it's going to take me a little while), and I can't get over the adorableness of some of our family pictures. My mom was almost 33 in these pictures, and my dad 35-- my age! It's so funny to me-- looking at my older sister who is still a little girl in these pictures (probably just turned 10 years old), I still can't erase that "older sister" imprint. She still looks like my older sister, even if in these pictures she is 25 years younger than I am. In the same way, it is so very disorienting to look at pictures of my parents and try to intellectually reconcile their ages-- younger than I am-- with the indelible feelings that they (being my parents) are much older than I am now.
I remember every item of clothing in this picture. I especially loved mama's shoes-- those blue leather and wood (plastic?) flip-flops. But I don't think we called them flip-flops back then, did we? Clogs maybe? Mama made the dresses Rosalynde and Naomi are wearing. Why aren't I wearing a matching dress? My mom had done my hair in my most favorite style-- a french braid all the way around the back, and then coiled in a Princess Leia-style bun on the side of my head. I loved it, but I know I was a big pill when it came to getting it done. I have a distinct memory of being at Grandma Frandsen's house and mama fixing my hair in this way before church, and me whining and wincing because she was pulling too hard. It might even have been the very morning of this picture!
(I think I've posted this picture before, but it's worth posting again.) Oh yes, our orange Vanagon! I loved that car. I remember when we bought it new and my sisters and I spent the night in it the night we brought it home. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of miles we put on that van? Look at my and Rosalynde's matching shorts. We were so cute! And Naomi's adorable little pigtails! And Brigham's knee socks! And Grandpa's bemused expression holding those two babies! And mama and daddy! How young and beautiful and handsome (they still are)! And how in the world did mama keep those white culottes clean with six children and two nursing babies?!
I remember this night very clearly. I was a hobo. Do kids even learn that word anymore? My mom blacked out one of my front teeth and gave me a scruffy "beard." Rosalynde was a gypsy-- I think I might have used that costume the next year. My mom never ever bought costumes for us. Everything was put together using dress up clothes and this and that we had acquired over the years. The only thing I can't remember-- where was this picture taken? It wasn't in our house. Rachel was dressed as Jacob (or, at least, a baseball player), and Jacob was dressed as Rachel (or, at least, a girl). I remember thinking that was the cleverest thing ever.
This was Christmas 1984. The cuteness is almost too much to take in!! I remember that I loved being the angel in our nativity pageant every Christmas I guess we couldn't talk either of the twins into being baby Jesus that year. :-) I know we had a smaller Christmas tree that mama and daddy put up on a table so the babies couldn't pull it down. We might have done that a couple of years in a row. I remember desperately wanting a Cabbage Patch doll this year, but didn't get one. I hope I didn't make a fuss about it. It was a good call of my parents not to get me one-- it surely would have been an expensive gift I would have liked for about a day and then never played with again. This was the Christmas of the purple sweatsuit. I had accidentally seen part of my mom's Christmas list (honest, it was an accident!) and saw that a sweatsuit was on my list. So when a purple sweatsuit was on my "Santa chair" (Santa Claus didn't wrap presents that he left at our house, but left them on our designated chairs), I knew once and for all that the shocking rumors I had been hearing at school were indeed true-- Santa Claus was really my parents. I think I took it pretty philosophically and bear no long-term scars. :-)
2. It was a pretty good Monday! My friend from Florida is coming to visit tomorrow, so the boys decided instead of taking the day off (which last week we had decided to do since Mondays are just too hard), they'd do most of their schoolwork so there isn't too much to finish up tomorrow before Melissa gets here. I can't wait to see her!
3. We finished Little Britches today. What is with the fathers dying in two books in a row?? (Cheaper by the Dozen and Little Britches) So sad. It's hard trying to keep my composure so I can finish reading the book aloud. We're reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry next, which, if I am dredging my memory even remotely accurately is also not an easy read. It's all good stuff, though.
4. I'm going through all my family's pictures from 1984-1989 for a project I'm working on (I've barely gotten through 1984 yet-- it's going to take me a little while), and I can't get over the adorableness of some of our family pictures. My mom was almost 33 in these pictures, and my dad 35-- my age! It's so funny to me-- looking at my older sister who is still a little girl in these pictures (probably just turned 10 years old), I still can't erase that "older sister" imprint. She still looks like my older sister, even if in these pictures she is 25 years younger than I am. In the same way, it is so very disorienting to look at pictures of my parents and try to intellectually reconcile their ages-- younger than I am-- with the indelible feelings that they (being my parents) are much older than I am now.
Monday, May 07, 2012
05/06/2012
1. Mosey's been having stomach-aches recently. I'm not sure what they're about, they seem to happen kind of randomly. Last night his stomach was hurting and he said he didn't think he'd be able to go to church. But this morning he was feeling fine. Toward the end of Sacrament meeting, I reminded Mosey that he was supposed to play prelude music for primary (he just finished learning "The Army of Helaman"). Suddenly he was feeling very sick and had to go home. Right after the closing prayer, he jumped up, ran to find Sister Reed, the primary president, and told her that he was sick and had to go home. Umm, okay! I didn't think he was sick (and still don't), but wasn't sure what to do at that point. So Ben took him home and they read Ensign articles and watched some church videos until the rest of us got home. By which time he was feeling just fine, and was fine for the rest of the day. :-)
2. Sunday afternoon naps are really nice. That is one nice benefit of having older kids. This afternoon I went on the back porch, turned the fan on full-blast, and slept for about an hour on the recliner we have out there (where our grimy old couch used to be). It's getting hot outside, but in the shade with the fan on full-blast, it was very pleasant.
3. Joseph was really bored by the late afternoon. I guess Sunday afternoons can seem long when there's no swimming, no computer games, and he doesn't want to play any board games with his brother because "Brigham always wins." (I played him in checkers and he was well on the way to beating me when we had to break for dinner.) So he made chocolate chip cookies. He did a great job, too, except accidentally put in one tablespoon of baking soda, instead of a teaspoon. Oops. Luckily he caught his mistake before we baked the cookies, so we made another batch, sans baking soda, combined the two, and now we have 80 or so chocolate chip cookies sitting on the cupboard, calling my name. :-)
4. Over dinner, after talking a bit about France's recent election (which seems to me to spell the doom of France as any sort of productive country), Ben and the boys had an interesting conversation about the relative merits and weaknesses of various forms of government, especially the parliamentary system. Brigham was particularly interested. He's my little political junkie.
2. Sunday afternoon naps are really nice. That is one nice benefit of having older kids. This afternoon I went on the back porch, turned the fan on full-blast, and slept for about an hour on the recliner we have out there (where our grimy old couch used to be). It's getting hot outside, but in the shade with the fan on full-blast, it was very pleasant.
3. Joseph was really bored by the late afternoon. I guess Sunday afternoons can seem long when there's no swimming, no computer games, and he doesn't want to play any board games with his brother because "Brigham always wins." (I played him in checkers and he was well on the way to beating me when we had to break for dinner.) So he made chocolate chip cookies. He did a great job, too, except accidentally put in one tablespoon of baking soda, instead of a teaspoon. Oops. Luckily he caught his mistake before we baked the cookies, so we made another batch, sans baking soda, combined the two, and now we have 80 or so chocolate chip cookies sitting on the cupboard, calling my name. :-)
4. Over dinner, after talking a bit about France's recent election (which seems to me to spell the doom of France as any sort of productive country), Ben and the boys had an interesting conversation about the relative merits and weaknesses of various forms of government, especially the parliamentary system. Brigham was particularly interested. He's my little political junkie.
family letter
Hi everyone,
It's 12:22. I've spent the last 3 hours picking up the house from the weekend, doing laundry, and finishing the last few batches of cookies that didn't get made earlier. Whew! But now I feel ready to start this next week.
This last week was pretty good. I think I say that most weeks, which is... pretty good! Nothing unusual. We had a bit of a rough Monday, as usual, but the week improved. It was also Mosey's last day at speech, which will make the next few weeks a little less complicated. He ended up really liking speech, after NOT liking it at all at the beginning of the semester. I feel a bit guilty for not signing him up for summer semester. He wants to, but I need to streamline our schedule for the summer, for my own sanity.
We had scouts on Tuesday. We did a couple of things on first aid, then made puddle jumpers (tin can "stilts"), bean bags, and bean bag targets. The boys got 5 electives signed off, plus two requirements for achievements, so it was productive. And the house was a MESS when they were done. Ah, well. I got an email from one of the moms telling me how much her son likes coming, so that made the mess worthwhile.
Brigham had a violin recital on Friday night. He played Boccherini's Minuet-- the last piece in Suzuki book 2, for anyone who remembers those pieces, and Ben accompanied him. They did great! Brigham enjoys performing. He's making progress with this teacher and likes playing violin, so all's good there.
The boys spent the night at a friends' house Friday night, so Ben and I had a quiet evening at home alone for the first time in a LONG time. I still get nervous about sleepovers, but Cheri (the mom) and I share most of our parenting ideas, and I feel fine about them spending time over there. The only bad thing was that they didn't sleep much and Saturday was consequently a little rough. :-) Ben and I watched "True Grit" (the new one-- Naomi I guess we were on the same wavelength or something!), which was OK, but not as good as the hype I heard about. I didn't like the ending.
Joseph had archery Saturday morning, and after that the boys did pretty much nothing all day until we went to another friends' apartment building for a swim party. The boys were tired and the apartment pool was crowded and they weren't having a great time, and so it wasn't long before they were asking when we could leave. I tried to explain that we needed to stay at least for a while, or it would be rude, but the rudeness happened anyway when Mosey informed Andrea (the friend's mom and my scout co-leader) that he didn't like any of the cupcakes she made. So Mosey and I had to have more discussion on being polite. Finally, though, we did leave and picked up pizza on the way home and everyone was in bed not too late.
I didn't have a very productive day on Saturday either-- did one trip to Target, but really nothing else, and I always feel depressed on days like that. Plus I was working on some scrapbook pages from 2006 (yes, I am 6 years behind :-)), and I went back to read some of my letters from that time period so I could remember details from some of the pictures I took back then. It's so fun to read those old letters, but also so painful. I'm completely out of that little-kid phase of life and it's hard to accept. It's made worse by the fact that I realize how fast it went, and the time will go by even faster until I'm completely out of the middle-childhood stage as well. Then I'll be looking back on the letters I'm writing now and feeling that same nostalgic pain, except worse because my time as a full-time mother will be even closer to ending. The biggest problem I have is that I can't envision what my life will be like after the boys are grown up and moved out of the house. There's nothing that seems interesting or fulfilling compared to what I'm doing now-- nothing even remotely so. I feel like every day that passes is a day closer to this big black abyss which is the empty nest. I know I shouldn't feel this way-- I should have some identity beyond mother and teacher to my children, but I don't, really. Like I said, nothing sounds very interesting. And the reality of my disability starts to seep in. All the things that I thought I might do now seem out of reach. So I've been feeling sorry for myself, which is a state of existence I absolutely loathe. That's what comes of non-productive days. Too much time to think.
And so here we are on the brink of another week. 5 more weeks of school. It'll be nice to have a change of routine, but it's hard to believe summer is almost here again. Time passes too quickly. Also the anxiety I feel every year building up toward my July appointments is beginning to rear its ugly head.
I need something to cheer me up! I'm looking so forward to our family reunion. I'm glad I've got that to look forward to.
OK, sorry for a downer of a letter. But now it's 12:49 and I have to go to bed!
Love,
Gabrielle
It's 12:22. I've spent the last 3 hours picking up the house from the weekend, doing laundry, and finishing the last few batches of cookies that didn't get made earlier. Whew! But now I feel ready to start this next week.
This last week was pretty good. I think I say that most weeks, which is... pretty good! Nothing unusual. We had a bit of a rough Monday, as usual, but the week improved. It was also Mosey's last day at speech, which will make the next few weeks a little less complicated. He ended up really liking speech, after NOT liking it at all at the beginning of the semester. I feel a bit guilty for not signing him up for summer semester. He wants to, but I need to streamline our schedule for the summer, for my own sanity.
We had scouts on Tuesday. We did a couple of things on first aid, then made puddle jumpers (tin can "stilts"), bean bags, and bean bag targets. The boys got 5 electives signed off, plus two requirements for achievements, so it was productive. And the house was a MESS when they were done. Ah, well. I got an email from one of the moms telling me how much her son likes coming, so that made the mess worthwhile.
Brigham had a violin recital on Friday night. He played Boccherini's Minuet-- the last piece in Suzuki book 2, for anyone who remembers those pieces, and Ben accompanied him. They did great! Brigham enjoys performing. He's making progress with this teacher and likes playing violin, so all's good there.
The boys spent the night at a friends' house Friday night, so Ben and I had a quiet evening at home alone for the first time in a LONG time. I still get nervous about sleepovers, but Cheri (the mom) and I share most of our parenting ideas, and I feel fine about them spending time over there. The only bad thing was that they didn't sleep much and Saturday was consequently a little rough. :-) Ben and I watched "True Grit" (the new one-- Naomi I guess we were on the same wavelength or something!), which was OK, but not as good as the hype I heard about. I didn't like the ending.
Joseph had archery Saturday morning, and after that the boys did pretty much nothing all day until we went to another friends' apartment building for a swim party. The boys were tired and the apartment pool was crowded and they weren't having a great time, and so it wasn't long before they were asking when we could leave. I tried to explain that we needed to stay at least for a while, or it would be rude, but the rudeness happened anyway when Mosey informed Andrea (the friend's mom and my scout co-leader) that he didn't like any of the cupcakes she made. So Mosey and I had to have more discussion on being polite. Finally, though, we did leave and picked up pizza on the way home and everyone was in bed not too late.
I didn't have a very productive day on Saturday either-- did one trip to Target, but really nothing else, and I always feel depressed on days like that. Plus I was working on some scrapbook pages from 2006 (yes, I am 6 years behind :-)), and I went back to read some of my letters from that time period so I could remember details from some of the pictures I took back then. It's so fun to read those old letters, but also so painful. I'm completely out of that little-kid phase of life and it's hard to accept. It's made worse by the fact that I realize how fast it went, and the time will go by even faster until I'm completely out of the middle-childhood stage as well. Then I'll be looking back on the letters I'm writing now and feeling that same nostalgic pain, except worse because my time as a full-time mother will be even closer to ending. The biggest problem I have is that I can't envision what my life will be like after the boys are grown up and moved out of the house. There's nothing that seems interesting or fulfilling compared to what I'm doing now-- nothing even remotely so. I feel like every day that passes is a day closer to this big black abyss which is the empty nest. I know I shouldn't feel this way-- I should have some identity beyond mother and teacher to my children, but I don't, really. Like I said, nothing sounds very interesting. And the reality of my disability starts to seep in. All the things that I thought I might do now seem out of reach. So I've been feeling sorry for myself, which is a state of existence I absolutely loathe. That's what comes of non-productive days. Too much time to think.
And so here we are on the brink of another week. 5 more weeks of school. It'll be nice to have a change of routine, but it's hard to believe summer is almost here again. Time passes too quickly. Also the anxiety I feel every year building up toward my July appointments is beginning to rear its ugly head.
I need something to cheer me up! I'm looking so forward to our family reunion. I'm glad I've got that to look forward to.
OK, sorry for a downer of a letter. But now it's 12:49 and I have to go to bed!
Love,
Gabrielle
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