Remembering what I’ve forgotten

by Mir on August 16, 2011 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience"

I’m over at Off Our Chests today, musing on memories and the things that slip away. Of course, my children are certain I forget even more than the average person, because my favorite defense against something I’d rather not do when they whine “But you promised!” is to insist that I don’t remember saying any such thing.

[Unfortunately, the teen has caught on. Now she claims "You promised you would" even if it's something we've never discussed, and half the time I'm not entirely sure I haven't just forgotten it. Getting old kind of sucks.]

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Tales of the Interloper

by Mir on August 15, 2011 in Oh look! Something furry!!

(Subtitle: Licorice’s account of The Trauma.)

It was bad enough that they had so many PEOPLES here, milling around, and the puppy-ones were all splashing in the Wet Pit Of Despair and shrieking, probably because being all wet is so horrible. I was dealing with that. I was just trying to stay out of everyone’s way, just eating a little grass, wandering out to my run and sniffing along the fence and everything, but then IT happened.

The Interloper appeared. I don’t know who he thinks he is, but he’s big and drooly and my people are acting like he’s wrapped in bacon or something, just because he’s old. He may be old, but he’s still trouble. I can tell. I tried to protect my family from him, bravely hurling myself between them and him at every opportunity, but whenever I did he stuck his nose all up in my lady-business like a total cad. Fresh!! Finally I was so stressed out I just had to go back to eating grass in the corner.

I was keeping my eye on him, though. Just in case. (more…)

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Just a busy Sunday

by Mir on August 14, 2011 in What do I do all day?, Woohoo!

So my to-do list for today is about six miles long; I got up early (which I almost never do on Sunday, because sleeping late is easily in my top 5 favorite activities) and did some work and picked up the house a little and went out for groceries and was back before I’m usually even awake on the weekend.

The plan was to have a couple of families from Monkey’s new school come over to swim, so everyone could meet everyone else and the boys could play and—hopefully—Monkey would not refuse to get in the car when carpool time came.

So I baked some muffins (when in doubt: bake) and made some iced tea and threw some lemonade pouches in the fridge for the kids. I put on my swimsuit and slathered Monkey in sunblock and truthfully, I was nervous, and also thinking about all of the other things I needed to be doing, or would have to rush to do after our guests left. (more…)

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Number six!

by Mir on August 12, 2011 in Health is overrated, Offspring: ecstasy and agony

One week of school is almost over, and already I feel like we have barely seen Chickadee. Between school and marching band and homework and a new youth group and the general business of leading a life, she is busy and happy and I am trying to be grateful for family dinnertime and the five or ten minutes here and there when I can catch a smile and a hug and a shred of information about her day.

One month ago, we were offered a potential treatment for Chickadee’s ever-present rash and I watched with a mix of annoyance and amusement as several of you wagged your fingers in the comments, telling me I needed to force her to do it. And the thing is, even if I would’ve been willing to go that route, the doctor told her it was up to her. She took it to heart, and for a few weeks I kept bringing it up and we argued and finally, Otto suggested we give her two weeks to think it over WITHOUT BADGERING HER, MIR, and we would talk again.

Last night before bed, she came downstairs and told us she’s ready to try the new med, blood draws and all. She needed time, and to feel like it was on her terms, but she made the right choice, all on her own. It was a superb ending to an already good day.

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Five things that made me smile today

by Mir on August 11, 2011 in What do I do all day?

1) Watching Chickadee pack up for school and carefully loft the new pink flute case that Otto surprised her with “because I’m proud of how hard you’ve worked with the marching band.” I never knew how much I would enjoy watching two people trying to pretend they’re not totally smitten with one another.

2) Khan Academy, and the fact that Monkey cannot get enough of it.

3) Surrendering to unschooling, and realizing it’s going to be fine because Monkey disappeared for an hour and came back with the periodic table, several carefully-drawn atom diagrams, and a page of notes he took on alkali metals because “this is incredibly interesting.”

4) Spending an hour splashing in the pool with my kid this afternoon (“this totally counts as gym… or recess… or both!”), and watching the dog disappear and reappear with various leaves tangled in her ears.

5) The fact that while we frolicked inside our finally-done fence, Fence Guy remembered his offer and dropped off a couple of bottles of wine for us. Red for Otto and white for me. I grudgingly admit this was a very sweet gesture.

Hey, it’s almost like it’s Love Thursday, or something.

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Because I’m klassy like that

by Mir on August 10, 2011 in Haven't been hit by lightning yet!, Retail Therapy

Lord, but it’s been a good long time since I regaled you with a story about my lady-bits. I mean, lately it’s been all I HAVE ANGST and MY KIDS HAVE ISSUES and IT TOOK 37 DAYS TO BUILD THIS STUPID FENCE, and—surprisingly!—this has left precious little time for in-depth discussions of the various ways in which I sometimes end up naked in front of strangers.

Clearly my priorities are WAY out of whack.

Needless to say, I live to serve you, my loyal audience. And given how long it’s been and the fact that I wasn’t due for a gynecological check-up, I went ahead and did the next best thing: I purchased a certificate for discount laser hair removal off of the Internet. Because what could possibly go wrong there? Surely a spa willing to zap people with lasers is still perfectly fine even if they’re selling sessions for 90% off. (more…)

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Solving problems one chocolate chip at a time

by Mir on August 9, 2011 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience", Offspring: ecstasy and agony

So Chickadee had a great first day of school, and Monkey had a pretty good first day of homeschooling, but then Chickadee came home with stories about her classes and friends, and THEN had to spend the evening on the computer, taking a seminar to go with her virtual math class (“Is this class conducted in space? Is the math itself all theoretical and based on futuristic robots?”), and while we were prepping dinner Monkey cut his thumb, and suddenly the two weeks until Hippie School begins was FOREVER and it wasn’t FAIR and life was SAD.

Fortunately, Monkey is resilient. Also, we made a LOT of cookies yesterday (I was, uh, teaching him! About sugar and butter!), and as we all know, EVERYTHING is better with cookies. This morning seemed brighter, especially with cookies promised for after lunch. Today is Chickadee’s first full day of school followed by an evening of marching band, so I packed her extras, even. All hail the power of cookies!

Of course, I have an ulterior motive, too: cookies are a great way to make sure my daughter isn’t completely buying into the hive-mind assurance that everyone who isn’t a supermodel is fat. I’m over at Off Our Chests today, wondering how in the world my 5’4″, 85-pound child doesn’t realize that she’s skinny.

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The first day of the last year

by Mir on August 8, 2011 in Offspring: ecstasy and agony

So. Seven years ago, when I started blogging, Chickadee was but a precocious 6-year-old finishing kindergarten. She alternately delighted and infuriated me, and I worried about her (a lot).

Today she is a precocious 13-year-old, starting her last year of middle school. She alternately delights and infuriates me, and I still worry about her, but less than I used to. She’s getting where she needs to go, even if that does mean she’s snarly and grouchy and mostly unappreciative of the fact that I made her a special breakfast and packed her the lunch she requested. Instead of saying “I’m sorry” she texted me from the bus to complain that she was the first one on and it would be a long ride and IF ONLY I’d let her take her iPod with her she’d have something to do. (My response: “Oh well. If only you weren’t so rotten.”)

We butt heads. We laugh together until we can’t breathe. I drive her crazy and embarrass her, and she takes me for granted and doesn’t listen until I get mad. She’ll be taller than me by the end of the school year, but I bet she’ll still sit on my lap. (more…)

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Comments { 48 }

Hip hip, hippie-hoo-ray!

by Mir on August 7, 2011 in Aspi(e)rations, Woohoo!

“I want to study chemistry,” he said. “Do you do that here?”

“Sure,” she said. “If you come here, you get to choose a lot of what you do. What do you like about chemistry?”

“I don’t really know, yet, I just think it would be neat.” He was playing with Legos in the middle of the floor, happily chatting, a far cry from his refusal to look at the new parapro the day before.

“Well, you can maybe choose that for some independent study, or when it’s time to do a group project you can pitch that to the other students and see if other people want to do it, too.” For the past half hour she had gamely jumped from topic to topic along with him, unperturbed by his non-sequitors and occasional lack of manners.

“I want to learn how to blow things up!” he said, sweeping his arms wide. As I barked his name and dropped my face into my hands, he laughed. “Just kidding!” he added. (more…)

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A tale of two orientations

by Mir on August 5, 2011 in Aspi(e)rations, Offspring: ecstasy and agony

Yesterday we got to go to the middle twice; first, for Chickadee’s 8th grade orientation, then later, for Monkey’s 6th grade one.

I took Chickie in the morning and marveled at how different it was, now, from her first foray into this building two years ago. She met up with friends easily, ran to greet and hug favorite teachers, and then parked herself at the brief assembly with her buds, leaving me happy to catch her glance now and then from the row behind them.

We picked up her schedule and discovered she hadn’t gotten a couple of teachers she’d wanted. Worse, it appeared many of her friends had the classes she didn’t. I braced for her disappointment.

And it didn’t come. (more…)

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