Clinging to okay
Several of you looked right past the story of how I nearly didn’t recognize my parents’ dog when they so-sneakily showed up last Sunday to surprise me, and went right for the more important issue, which was: How did Monkey do with meeting some of the kids he’ll be attending Hippie School with? (I would like to buy some proper syntax for that sentence, but I’m too lazy to fix it, so just pretend it wasn’t the most awkward and rambly one you’ve ever read.) Last Sunday we had just two of his classmates here (along with a younger sibling and the younger sibling’s friend), and despite three being a not-so-magic number when it comes to play dates, the boys did great. A good time was had by all, and aside from a couple of minor skirmishes (only one involving my own kid, even), all was calm and delightful.
Monkey couldn’t wait to start school. Every day he’s been asking IS IT MONDAY YET?? and every day I have assured him that school will be here before he knows it. So when we got an email on Thursday letting us know that there would be a school-wide pool party today, I thought this would be a good way to say “Here’s everyone, and also now it’s nearly Monday,” and I put it on my calendar.
But then yesterday Monkey voluntarily went to bed early, which is never a good sign. read more…
The continuing extravaganza
Dude. Otto proves to be a hard act to follow. I feel like I have to have something extremely MEANINGFUL and HEARTFELT to share after he hijacked the blog yesterday and was all “My love will go oooooooooon!” while he stood at the prow of the HMS Woulda, hair streaming back in the wind. (Sometimes I get him confused with a movie I once saw, but I’m pretty sure that’s very close to what happened.) And now I should be able to show up in a corseted ball gown and tell you how turning 40 changed my life, and I had a deep personal revelation yesterday about the nature of the human experience.
The truth is that I’m still in my pajamas, and while I felt very loved yesterday, the deepest epiphany I had ran along the lines of, “Yum, cake is delicious.”
Sometimes shallow is deeper than me, it’s true. read more…
Shhh … it’s SOMEONE’S BIRTHDAY
Today is a Special Day That We Are Not Allowed to Talk About here. But I wanted to share some things I love about my wife. read more…
Remembering what I’ve forgotten
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.]
Tales of the Interloper
(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. read more…
Just a busy Sunday
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. read more…
Number six!
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.
Five things that made me smile today
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.
Because I’m klassy like that
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. read more…
Solving problems one chocolate chip at a time
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.