Someone just described me as having an exciting life. How true is that? I mean really, I'm a stay at home Mom with a tennis addiction and an uneasy juxtaposition of not enough and too much time on my hands. I do some combination of teaching my children at home and watching them learn in the world while I sit back and ferry their bodies where they want to go to do this. And I retrieve my dogs from the woods across from us several times a day. I suppose it's all in how you describe what you do.
And when it all comes down, it is a pretty exciting life. There was the breath-holding, sweat-inducing, ice dripping down my bra and neck singles match yesterday. There was the grand challenge of taking two five year old girls to Wal-Mart tonight and having them babbling to each other, me, and the other shoppers in their made-up language while I ran over their feet an undisclosed number of times because they wouldn't stop darting in front of me. There's tomorrow, when we're planning to drive up to Wintergreen to watch an Eddie from Ohio concert and see some fireworks. There was the non-child-friendly Thai hot chili stir-fry on the rice noodles tonight that we served to seven children, at least three of whom practically turned inside out. There are the 18 semi-melted orangesicles in the garage freezer because I had to take a friend home and then stop at Blockbuster instead of going straight home after I had been grocery shopping. The book group with 8 7-10 year old boys in it. And the used mattress I'm supposed to pick up from a friend tomorrow so that the twins will finally have something on their top bunk. I guess you can't really argue that it's not dull.
I'm in love with our screened porch. I read out here. I type out here. I blog out here. I spend time with the kids out here. I escape the freezing cold air-conditioned house out here. It's a place that positively reeks of my dogs (and features them as a visual element, since they love it more than I do) and gathers clutter like you wouldn't believe (yard stuff, nature table stuff, candles, sand toys, dirty dishes). But it's warm, cozy, and feels set apart from the rest of life.
I'm reading the Memory Keeper's Daughter, and right now I can barely put it down. I just started it this afternoon, and it's noteworthy that I am even able to start a book at this point in my life. Ollie and I finished Harry Potter 5 yesterday and started on the sixth book, but between reading aloud to him and cleaning up at the end of the day and general exhaustion from getting up too early to play tennis almost every day, I don't find a lot of leftover time for my own pursuits. I need to change that somehow. It's back to the old question of what you *don't* do in order to enable yourself to have time to accomplish the things that you *do* do.
I had a conversation with several different people today about what is different about next year from previous years that it just feels so...complicated and necessary to be planning right now for the fall. And my response is that it's because (a) there are more people to plan for--Frances is a real entity who is a full participant in many of the activities and (b) there really are more offerings for homeschoolers these days. There's the Homeschool Place, for one. But there are also just more organized activities and ones that are asking for a commitment or a reserved space...NOW. It went from art class being a drop-in with potential times on M, W, F. Then last year we sort of asked if the teacher would do a class just for our five families at a regular time each week. And now it feels like we have to reserve the spot and the time now to be insured it's going to be there for us and that it fits in our schedule, which of course means that we have to figure out what our schedule is in the first place, which leads back to the realization that IT IS JUNE!! Not August, not September, not even a full month from when the last "school" year ended, but early summer, when we're theoretically supposed to be on break. The best I can say is, it cannot be helped. Here we are, so we have to go with it.
I am going to sign off and return to my reading before the sleepover erupts again or I find myself being awoken by the crying of another person's child at 2 a.m.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
My Toke
That's Rutledge's big line these days: "No, my Toke!" Yeah, he's Coke obsessed just like the others. His other major cutie is saying, in response to, "What's your name," something like "I'm me. I'm Rut!"
We spent too much time outside today, considering that it was 95 degrees and deathly humid. The bad thing about my "match of a lifetime" tennis games is that they go on forever, and this one today was a replay of last week, but with a different result. I lost the first set 6-1, which didn't reflect the level of play going on, just, apparently, my inability to wrap it up. The second set I won 1-6. And then I won in the tiebreaker 5-10. It was amazing and exhausting. I kept putting ice into my bra and into my hat, but in the final five minutes, absolutely nothing was helping.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the sitter was locked out of the house in the heat with four kids she had taken to a tennis lesson, and they were all huddled in the garage next to the cat door, where it was cool because of the air conditioning. I felt horrible! Two neighbors have keys, but neither was home, although one arrived fairly soon after I heard the bad news, saving the melting folks at home. Poor, poor Heather, who will probably never set foot at our house again!
Wimbledon is on, Sharapova, my favorite Canon-snapping player, just won in a landslide. And I am remembering, as I always will, that this is the week that I spent in the hospital back when I was pregnant with the twins. I had a lot of time on my hands to watch a lot of tennis. A lot of everything, actually. A lot of crossword puzzles were done. Logic puzzles. All kinds of puzzles. Every day. All day.
Tomorrow is the first book group, and Ollie has a selection of books he might like to read, but Walter is stuck on My Father's Dragon, which is probably a little slower than the speed of this particular group. And a little too innocent. Ollie and I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tonight, and it was very, very intense for him. Although I've taken some grief that they haven't read the books before, I feel like it makes sense to wait, since the themes, many of them, are rather mature for them even still. It's a lot to take in and process. If we play our cards right and prioritize our reading the way we have been (read: no reading for me, no free time without a child right next to me), we'll be through the sixth book in about five days.
The topic of overprotective parents came up today at the park. I probably fall into the most permissive category. My kids go online and play games almost every day. They're pretty innocuous ones, IMO, things like Nickelodeon cartoon tie-ins, Webkinz, and Lego.com. And they play console video games, including my recent major step out in letting Ollie get Call of Duty 2. We haven't, however, succumbed to World of Warcraft or any other multi-player role-playing games (thank goodness! I know nothing about that subculture and am happy to remain in the dark!). I do let them go out in the cul de sac across the street without me to play with their friends, though this is a pretty recent development. Unfortunately, it has included letting Frances go. I just can't stay over and outside by myself with a pile of 4-8 year olds and not go crazy after an hour. More and more, though, I'm finding that the group ends up here playing, which is fine with me. I have thought a lot lately about letting Ollie go out on his own to take himself to tennis on the trails behind the school playing fields, but I think he's not quite ready yet to take that step, especially if we haven't all walked the path several times with him before. But I do look forward to the time when the boys will be able to be at the pool on their own while I do other things--while I am at the fitness center or playing tennis, especially. It will simplify things to a huge degree. Of course, having Rutledge be 4 will also simplify life in some ways.
I'm feeling like I'm not spending enough time with Franny lately. I'm in the house with her, but I'm so focused on reading to Ollie or keeping Rutledge from hitting us with a big stick or helping Walter with math that I'm not giving her a lot of undivided attention. We probably need a date together this weekend, though preferably one that doesn't include Build-A-Bear. I tend not to stick around during her activities because they are not Rutledge-friendly, and that means that I feel a bit more out of touch with her these days. She loves to be read to, but she isn't going to sit through a 900 page Harry Potter book. She loves to do her own math work, but it requires so much concentration and intervention from me that we don't do it as often as I'd like to be doing it.
I need to get to bed. My most memorable dream last night involved me sleeping in until 9:30 when I had to be at Fox Hall in the West End to play tennis at 9:00. I had missed the babysitter ringing the doorbell, and on top of this, I was wearing about 8 layers of too-tight clothes that I couldn't peel off so that I could get dressed. I knew that by the time I got myself together and drove where I needed to be that it would be 10:15, and it was too late. There was nothing I could do, and given my childcare gaffe week a copule of weeks ago, I knew this would be the end of my time on the USTA team. It was just so vivid!
We spent too much time outside today, considering that it was 95 degrees and deathly humid. The bad thing about my "match of a lifetime" tennis games is that they go on forever, and this one today was a replay of last week, but with a different result. I lost the first set 6-1, which didn't reflect the level of play going on, just, apparently, my inability to wrap it up. The second set I won 1-6. And then I won in the tiebreaker 5-10. It was amazing and exhausting. I kept putting ice into my bra and into my hat, but in the final five minutes, absolutely nothing was helping.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the sitter was locked out of the house in the heat with four kids she had taken to a tennis lesson, and they were all huddled in the garage next to the cat door, where it was cool because of the air conditioning. I felt horrible! Two neighbors have keys, but neither was home, although one arrived fairly soon after I heard the bad news, saving the melting folks at home. Poor, poor Heather, who will probably never set foot at our house again!
Wimbledon is on, Sharapova, my favorite Canon-snapping player, just won in a landslide. And I am remembering, as I always will, that this is the week that I spent in the hospital back when I was pregnant with the twins. I had a lot of time on my hands to watch a lot of tennis. A lot of everything, actually. A lot of crossword puzzles were done. Logic puzzles. All kinds of puzzles. Every day. All day.
Tomorrow is the first book group, and Ollie has a selection of books he might like to read, but Walter is stuck on My Father's Dragon, which is probably a little slower than the speed of this particular group. And a little too innocent. Ollie and I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tonight, and it was very, very intense for him. Although I've taken some grief that they haven't read the books before, I feel like it makes sense to wait, since the themes, many of them, are rather mature for them even still. It's a lot to take in and process. If we play our cards right and prioritize our reading the way we have been (read: no reading for me, no free time without a child right next to me), we'll be through the sixth book in about five days.
The topic of overprotective parents came up today at the park. I probably fall into the most permissive category. My kids go online and play games almost every day. They're pretty innocuous ones, IMO, things like Nickelodeon cartoon tie-ins, Webkinz, and Lego.com. And they play console video games, including my recent major step out in letting Ollie get Call of Duty 2. We haven't, however, succumbed to World of Warcraft or any other multi-player role-playing games (thank goodness! I know nothing about that subculture and am happy to remain in the dark!). I do let them go out in the cul de sac across the street without me to play with their friends, though this is a pretty recent development. Unfortunately, it has included letting Frances go. I just can't stay over and outside by myself with a pile of 4-8 year olds and not go crazy after an hour. More and more, though, I'm finding that the group ends up here playing, which is fine with me. I have thought a lot lately about letting Ollie go out on his own to take himself to tennis on the trails behind the school playing fields, but I think he's not quite ready yet to take that step, especially if we haven't all walked the path several times with him before. But I do look forward to the time when the boys will be able to be at the pool on their own while I do other things--while I am at the fitness center or playing tennis, especially. It will simplify things to a huge degree. Of course, having Rutledge be 4 will also simplify life in some ways.
I'm feeling like I'm not spending enough time with Franny lately. I'm in the house with her, but I'm so focused on reading to Ollie or keeping Rutledge from hitting us with a big stick or helping Walter with math that I'm not giving her a lot of undivided attention. We probably need a date together this weekend, though preferably one that doesn't include Build-A-Bear. I tend not to stick around during her activities because they are not Rutledge-friendly, and that means that I feel a bit more out of touch with her these days. She loves to be read to, but she isn't going to sit through a 900 page Harry Potter book. She loves to do her own math work, but it requires so much concentration and intervention from me that we don't do it as often as I'd like to be doing it.
I need to get to bed. My most memorable dream last night involved me sleeping in until 9:30 when I had to be at Fox Hall in the West End to play tennis at 9:00. I had missed the babysitter ringing the doorbell, and on top of this, I was wearing about 8 layers of too-tight clothes that I couldn't peel off so that I could get dressed. I knew that by the time I got myself together and drove where I needed to be that it would be 10:15, and it was too late. There was nothing I could do, and given my childcare gaffe week a copule of weeks ago, I knew this would be the end of my time on the USTA team. It was just so vivid!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
I was mistaken last week--this week, tomorrow, is my final USTA match. I think I've only had one win this season, which is disappointing. I don't know why I'm so fearful of hitting the ball, but I just give away points. I'm going to try not to think about this and just play as hard as I can. After last week's match, I'm on a high and ready to redeem myself at #1 singles tomorrow. I have a sitter coming, which has taken a good deal of prep; I can't stand strangers coming to stay in my house and feeling like it looks like a pigsty. Right now it's more like a cleanish pigsty, but it's the best I can do. And Ollie will make it to his own tennis lesson, which is a good thing.
If we can find the time tomorrow, we are only a day or so away from finishing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We have averaged 120+ pages a day for the past four days, so if we work at slightly above that pace tomorrow, we'll have it all wrapped up and be able to move on to the 6th book and be done well before the 7th comes out in three weeks or so. It is taking all of my spare minutes and my time to myself after children's bedtimes to get to this point, but I'm looking forward to reading some different books once we finish this series. There are so many on our list that I'm eager to get started.
Friday is the first meeting of the boys' book group. I hope that they will be cooperative. I hope that Ollie will find some books that he wants to read. I hope that Walter will listen as we read so that he can participate. But it is exciting for them. Today I took Ollie to B&N to look at possible selections, and I think he has a few. We didn't buy all of them because that was going to get expensive, but he is ready to say what he wants to see happen and what he has liked in the past. More on that to come.
Tomorrow after tennis we are going to Sunday Park for a picnic. It sounds hot. Today was horrendous in terms of heat. The rain that is supposed to arrive Friday cannot come soon enough. It was so hot at the pool today, even in the water. And all three older kids have red faces from me not protecting them well enough. Their bodies are looking rather white, but their heads, no matter what I do, seem to be in trouble. I hope that we don't melt in the heat. And I need not even think about Richmond Olympiad in the afternoon. I'll need to remember to pack plenty of water. Even then, it's rather unbearable there. The weekend promises a much better forecast, with lower temperatures and lower humidity.
I need to get pictures on here again. I have them. I've been taking quite a few at the pool and when we have been out, it's just a matter of uploading them to the computer and then putting them on here. I haven't done it much yet, so I'm less familiar with the process, and for me, if it's not automatic, it doesn't happen.
Kerry accused me of making bad decisions tonight. With a blinding headache with the air pressure today, I took BC powder, which is full of caffeine, at dinnertime. Now here I am, still with a headache, but likely to be awake all night. We shall see.
If we can find the time tomorrow, we are only a day or so away from finishing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We have averaged 120+ pages a day for the past four days, so if we work at slightly above that pace tomorrow, we'll have it all wrapped up and be able to move on to the 6th book and be done well before the 7th comes out in three weeks or so. It is taking all of my spare minutes and my time to myself after children's bedtimes to get to this point, but I'm looking forward to reading some different books once we finish this series. There are so many on our list that I'm eager to get started.
Friday is the first meeting of the boys' book group. I hope that they will be cooperative. I hope that Ollie will find some books that he wants to read. I hope that Walter will listen as we read so that he can participate. But it is exciting for them. Today I took Ollie to B&N to look at possible selections, and I think he has a few. We didn't buy all of them because that was going to get expensive, but he is ready to say what he wants to see happen and what he has liked in the past. More on that to come.
Tomorrow after tennis we are going to Sunday Park for a picnic. It sounds hot. Today was horrendous in terms of heat. The rain that is supposed to arrive Friday cannot come soon enough. It was so hot at the pool today, even in the water. And all three older kids have red faces from me not protecting them well enough. Their bodies are looking rather white, but their heads, no matter what I do, seem to be in trouble. I hope that we don't melt in the heat. And I need not even think about Richmond Olympiad in the afternoon. I'll need to remember to pack plenty of water. Even then, it's rather unbearable there. The weekend promises a much better forecast, with lower temperatures and lower humidity.
I need to get pictures on here again. I have them. I've been taking quite a few at the pool and when we have been out, it's just a matter of uploading them to the computer and then putting them on here. I haven't done it much yet, so I'm less familiar with the process, and for me, if it's not automatic, it doesn't happen.
Kerry accused me of making bad decisions tonight. With a blinding headache with the air pressure today, I took BC powder, which is full of caffeine, at dinnertime. Now here I am, still with a headache, but likely to be awake all night. We shall see.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Speechless
That's what I should be after reading 150 pages of Harry Potter aloud today. This is one of those rare days when I never left Woodlake. Didn't really interact with any other people, which is always questionable, but much like our existence when we first moved here. I played tennis...with myself this morning. Kate had an errand to run for the junior tournament that was going on this morning, so since I already had child care, I went ahead and spent some quality time with my favorite green-clad player, the ball machine. I did two rounds of forehand balls, working on topspin, backspin, and just getting it over the net, and then I served the entire basket of balls. I'm rather sore now! There wasn't quite enough time to accomplish much of anything, since so much time gets taken up wheeling the machine and the basket of balls from the shed to the far hard court, then threading the plug through the fence, then loading in all the balls, and finally picking them up when they've all come shooting out at you. But it was a great use of my time and gave me the sheer number of balls I've needed to it lately.
The kids were at Water Works, which is a program at our swim club where they are supervised by teenagers and don't have to go to the nursery while I do something. I let the older three dive for about 30 minutes before we had to pick up Rutledge. Most of the rest of the day was spent reading aloud. Lovely. Really.
Tomorrow morning, Ollie starts his tennis lessons. I realized I haven't seen or even talked to Rebecca in practically two weeks, which feels just plain wrong to me. So my goal for tomorrow is to go bother her no matter what she says or where she is. How's that for friendly?!
Summer is always an interesting time. Walter's friend Jared has left for the summer, and we don't know when or if he is coming back. We don't have any vacation plans. We don't have plans of any kind to really speak of except for the week of day camp in August for Walter. I'm regretting not forcing them all to do swim team this year, so that's one of my goals for next year. I didn't want to be tied down (or pay another $200), but I'm thinking now, tied down to what??
The kids were at Water Works, which is a program at our swim club where they are supervised by teenagers and don't have to go to the nursery while I do something. I let the older three dive for about 30 minutes before we had to pick up Rutledge. Most of the rest of the day was spent reading aloud. Lovely. Really.
Tomorrow morning, Ollie starts his tennis lessons. I realized I haven't seen or even talked to Rebecca in practically two weeks, which feels just plain wrong to me. So my goal for tomorrow is to go bother her no matter what she says or where she is. How's that for friendly?!
Summer is always an interesting time. Walter's friend Jared has left for the summer, and we don't know when or if he is coming back. We don't have any vacation plans. We don't have plans of any kind to really speak of except for the week of day camp in August for Walter. I'm regretting not forcing them all to do swim team this year, so that's one of my goals for next year. I didn't want to be tied down (or pay another $200), but I'm thinking now, tied down to what??
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Deuce
Finally, I've hit my stride in tennis. After the smokin' match on Thursday (even if I didn't win), I've been on the ball, literally, since then. My serve is finally in most of the time--I have been paying attention to nothing more than throwing the ball high enough, and sure enough, I've got my first serve under control and my second serve less pathetic now. My groundstrokes are also more reliable, and I'm getting more overheads and playing more aggressively at the net. This morning I played singles and won 6-4, 6-2, 6-1. Tonight Kerry and I played doubles in a well-matched pairing, and we also won three sets, though I'm blanking on the score. And I am dreadfully tired. Maybe I'll get that racket tattoo after all....
Speaking of smokin' talents, Walter is learning to play the piano, and he is such a natural at it. Right now he is playing Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and he is doing it smoothly and with feeling. I've just been casually teaching them and having them practice 3 or 4 days a week, and this is pretty good for just being three or so weeks into the deal.
Tomorrow I teach Sunday School in the morning. I feel so unprepared, even though there's not that much to prepare for it. The activities in the book we teach from are...interesting. Tomorrow's lesson plan calls for a lot of tearing up foam pieces and throwing them at things--throwing them at plastic ants, of all things. Last week there was a lot of throwing things, too. We threw a styrofoam raven at our prayer requests. Hmmm. And we picked up plastic ants. I can't remember why we did it, but there it was. After tomorrow, we don't have Sunday School again until the middle of August.
Here is my current thinking about what seems to be a key to homeschooling success past the critical zone of late elementary, the point at which many people I've known have chosen to send their children to school. I was listening to a friend who now has 15 and 16 year olds, and while it sounds like sometimes her boys may have wanted to go to school, they accept that this is what their family does. I see her boys all the time around the neighborhood, and they seem very "normal" to me--out with friends, riding their skateboards, they seem to have girlfriends, almost always in a pack of other kids. The three biggies that I see as setting one up for long-term success are (1) Consistent activities--doing the same thing year after year. For her it seems to be Boy Scouts, church show choir and youth activities, and at one point, Lego robotics. (2) Doing a few things and doing them with gusto. (3) Keeping as much as possible local. Some of her boys' major activities happen within walking distance of her house. They haven't lost touch with the other people their age living right around them.
Now I'm on to wondering how I'll put that together for myself. Easier said than done, right?
Speaking of smokin' talents, Walter is learning to play the piano, and he is such a natural at it. Right now he is playing Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and he is doing it smoothly and with feeling. I've just been casually teaching them and having them practice 3 or 4 days a week, and this is pretty good for just being three or so weeks into the deal.
Tomorrow I teach Sunday School in the morning. I feel so unprepared, even though there's not that much to prepare for it. The activities in the book we teach from are...interesting. Tomorrow's lesson plan calls for a lot of tearing up foam pieces and throwing them at things--throwing them at plastic ants, of all things. Last week there was a lot of throwing things, too. We threw a styrofoam raven at our prayer requests. Hmmm. And we picked up plastic ants. I can't remember why we did it, but there it was. After tomorrow, we don't have Sunday School again until the middle of August.
Here is my current thinking about what seems to be a key to homeschooling success past the critical zone of late elementary, the point at which many people I've known have chosen to send their children to school. I was listening to a friend who now has 15 and 16 year olds, and while it sounds like sometimes her boys may have wanted to go to school, they accept that this is what their family does. I see her boys all the time around the neighborhood, and they seem very "normal" to me--out with friends, riding their skateboards, they seem to have girlfriends, almost always in a pack of other kids. The three biggies that I see as setting one up for long-term success are (1) Consistent activities--doing the same thing year after year. For her it seems to be Boy Scouts, church show choir and youth activities, and at one point, Lego robotics. (2) Doing a few things and doing them with gusto. (3) Keeping as much as possible local. Some of her boys' major activities happen within walking distance of her house. They haven't lost touch with the other people their age living right around them.
Now I'm on to wondering how I'll put that together for myself. Easier said than done, right?
Friday, June 22, 2007
You Might Be a Redneck
Crass as they are, variations on this theme are some of my favorite little jokes. As anyone who knows me knows, it doesn't actually take much to set me off laughing about something that is amusing to no one else who is older than a third grader. But anyway, tonight you could say I might have had too much to drink when :
* I've poured a whiskey sour into one of my best friend's shoes
* I try to log onto my blog to post and I keep typing in sss.blogger.com and aaa.blogger.com
* I repeat (and type the word "prepeat") the same phrase over and over for effect while I'm trying to convince my sleeping husband that I'm not a lightweight and I can handle my alcohol
So there you are. Make your own decisions, readers. Whoever you are.
I just bot gack (got back) from a pontoon boat cruise with a group of homeschooling friends. We actually didn't talk shop all that much. A few anecdotes here and there, but none of this talk about the new homeschool center that is going to be opening or about plans for next years or about the dreaded C topic or educational clubs or what have you. It was old boat stories, food, talk about dreams, and chat about local restaurants. What a lovely change of pace from nothing but shop talk. I live shop. I love shop. But I don't always have to talk shop. It was a gorgeous night, beyond what one could order from a catalog, if such a thing were possible. Clear skies full of stars, falling ones, even. Ripply water with hopping fish. Other pontoons with swimmers leaping joyously (and drunkily?) off their decks. Children swinging off ropes into the water from their shoreside yards. A popular neighborhood nightspot with a full deck of weekend folks relaxing. A wedding reception going on up the hill. Simply lovely.
Today I took all four children to Busch Gardens by myself. This was a first. It went okay. It was a learning experience for all of us, one where I had to lay down the law on a few lessons. You can't be throwing things or licking your siblings while I am driving on I-64. I will pull over onto the shoulder and talk to you. You can't throw straws out the window or I will pull you out of gymnastics and ballet faster than a speeding cylinder of plastic on I-95. Don't even wander off in a big crowded theme park where your mother can't see you. But overall, we had a lovely day. My plan was to use today to see all of those shows that we never manage to catch when we are running amok and slamming in as many rides in 6 hours as we can. It sort of worked. We saw a very energetic 4-D pirate show with Leslie Nielson, a high on the special effects (how did this guy change costumes so magically quickly?) one-man show about a castle on Ireland, and most of a children's song and dance show. But the fact is, we rode a lot of rides. Not our usual ones. Well, okay, the boys did go on the Loch Ness Monster twice. Frances and Rutledge rode the mini clydesdales ride and walked through the stables and petted and had their picture taken with McGhee (Wednesday when we went, it was with Marty). They all rode all of the rides in Land of the Dragons, which is the little children's area. The water jets were on, although Rutledge was a bit too cautious. They climbed in the treehouse and rode all of the tiny rides. My favorite lines from Rutledge today: "I want to ride dem bopes." "I want to ride dem bugs." And my ultimate favorite line these days, although I am tired of saying no and witnessing the resulting tantrum: "No, my Toke!" (No, my Coke!) We had a very nutritious lunch of 7-11 hot dogs and slurpees (I dropped my Toke all over the ground, and I promise I had not had any alcohol at 11 a.m.!). And I spent too much on Jelly Bellys and big lollipops and frozen lemonade. On the whole, today was a pretty good day out that was neither too long nor too short. My only complaint was that I took a wrong turn getting home because I was zoned out talking to Hilary on my phone, and the next thing I knew I was in Colonial Heights, then Petersburg, then at Fort Lee. I've never been down there before, don't foresee a lot of going down there again any time soon, and it ended up taking me about 45 minutes longer to get home than it should have. Anyone who knows me know that these driving zone-outs happen all too often to me. I hope we'll find a time to get back to Busch Gardens next week, even if i do need to figure out how to spend less on food. I'll get a system down one of these days. Probably a day or so before our season pass expires.
This is old news, but yesterday I played the tennis game of my life. It may not have been the best I ever played (and I lost), but it was my best match ever. Close, close, close. I lost the first set 6-4, won the second 3-6, and then lost in the tie-breaker 12-10. But the points were amazing, my opponent and I had a lot of fun, and we rallied and rallied and got in some incredible shots. My placement was on, my serve was mostly on, and my consistency was such as it has never been before. I had a lot of spectators, primarily because the match was just so darn long--about 45 minutes past the time when everyone else on my team was finished. Hilary showed up after her away match. I wish I could have wrapped things up a little better, but I was so pleased with how this went and, well, just had a ton of fun. This was my second time playing #1 singles, and I am so eager to play more singles now that I've had this experience. I think I'm going to meet a friend to play tomorrow morning, just for more practice. Our final match of the USTA season is next week, but then I'll be starting a 3.0/3.5 combo league on Saturdays when this ends. Just when I'm ready to throw in the towel on something, it seems to turn itself right around and become infused with a new energy, so maybe I just will consider that tennis racket tattoo I joke about.
Here's a question in the air these days. Should you continue to school during the summer? Well, I guess that depends on what you call schooling. Though I still aspire, in some ways, to be completely child-led, in which summer, winter, fall, you name it, we'd just be living life, the fact is that right now, in order to feel okay about whether we are at least sort of on track with our perceived grade level. So for now, I'm trying to hit at least four days a week with math, handwriting (we're now on to copywork, where I'm having them copy short poems on lined paper, using correct form for letters), spelling, and grammar. Everyone hates grammar, and I have this feeling that though the work isn't hard, if they found themselves asked questions about subjects and predicates in six months that they would be glaring blankly at a test booklet. Though I will say, I was rather pleased to hear Walter declare that "diagramming sentences is fun." I love those compound subjects and their triangulating lines, too.
What I'm reading right now: The endless Harry Potter 5 (did I mention that Rutledge unwound and/or ripped 13 cassettes the other day?). The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Writer Mama. And some magazines. Ollie and I have been reading about World War II, the Holocaust, and the causes of the Vietnam War. And the perennial scary stories. We are finding that the back porch is now our favorite place to be. Yes, it smells like dog on a bad day, but usually it is a welcome respite from the cold temperatures of inside the house and is a haven set apart from the noise of indoors. I feel like we are finally bonding with this area that was the original selling point of our house. If only we could reclaim it from the animals and decorate it more comfortably, I think it really would be our favorite room.
* I've poured a whiskey sour into one of my best friend's shoes
* I try to log onto my blog to post and I keep typing in sss.blogger.com and aaa.blogger.com
* I repeat (and type the word "prepeat") the same phrase over and over for effect while I'm trying to convince my sleeping husband that I'm not a lightweight and I can handle my alcohol
So there you are. Make your own decisions, readers. Whoever you are.
I just bot gack (got back) from a pontoon boat cruise with a group of homeschooling friends. We actually didn't talk shop all that much. A few anecdotes here and there, but none of this talk about the new homeschool center that is going to be opening or about plans for next years or about the dreaded C topic or educational clubs or what have you. It was old boat stories, food, talk about dreams, and chat about local restaurants. What a lovely change of pace from nothing but shop talk. I live shop. I love shop. But I don't always have to talk shop. It was a gorgeous night, beyond what one could order from a catalog, if such a thing were possible. Clear skies full of stars, falling ones, even. Ripply water with hopping fish. Other pontoons with swimmers leaping joyously (and drunkily?) off their decks. Children swinging off ropes into the water from their shoreside yards. A popular neighborhood nightspot with a full deck of weekend folks relaxing. A wedding reception going on up the hill. Simply lovely.
Today I took all four children to Busch Gardens by myself. This was a first. It went okay. It was a learning experience for all of us, one where I had to lay down the law on a few lessons. You can't be throwing things or licking your siblings while I am driving on I-64. I will pull over onto the shoulder and talk to you. You can't throw straws out the window or I will pull you out of gymnastics and ballet faster than a speeding cylinder of plastic on I-95. Don't even wander off in a big crowded theme park where your mother can't see you. But overall, we had a lovely day. My plan was to use today to see all of those shows that we never manage to catch when we are running amok and slamming in as many rides in 6 hours as we can. It sort of worked. We saw a very energetic 4-D pirate show with Leslie Nielson, a high on the special effects (how did this guy change costumes so magically quickly?) one-man show about a castle on Ireland, and most of a children's song and dance show. But the fact is, we rode a lot of rides. Not our usual ones. Well, okay, the boys did go on the Loch Ness Monster twice. Frances and Rutledge rode the mini clydesdales ride and walked through the stables and petted and had their picture taken with McGhee (Wednesday when we went, it was with Marty). They all rode all of the rides in Land of the Dragons, which is the little children's area. The water jets were on, although Rutledge was a bit too cautious. They climbed in the treehouse and rode all of the tiny rides. My favorite lines from Rutledge today: "I want to ride dem bopes." "I want to ride dem bugs." And my ultimate favorite line these days, although I am tired of saying no and witnessing the resulting tantrum: "No, my Toke!" (No, my Coke!) We had a very nutritious lunch of 7-11 hot dogs and slurpees (I dropped my Toke all over the ground, and I promise I had not had any alcohol at 11 a.m.!). And I spent too much on Jelly Bellys and big lollipops and frozen lemonade. On the whole, today was a pretty good day out that was neither too long nor too short. My only complaint was that I took a wrong turn getting home because I was zoned out talking to Hilary on my phone, and the next thing I knew I was in Colonial Heights, then Petersburg, then at Fort Lee. I've never been down there before, don't foresee a lot of going down there again any time soon, and it ended up taking me about 45 minutes longer to get home than it should have. Anyone who knows me know that these driving zone-outs happen all too often to me. I hope we'll find a time to get back to Busch Gardens next week, even if i do need to figure out how to spend less on food. I'll get a system down one of these days. Probably a day or so before our season pass expires.
This is old news, but yesterday I played the tennis game of my life. It may not have been the best I ever played (and I lost), but it was my best match ever. Close, close, close. I lost the first set 6-4, won the second 3-6, and then lost in the tie-breaker 12-10. But the points were amazing, my opponent and I had a lot of fun, and we rallied and rallied and got in some incredible shots. My placement was on, my serve was mostly on, and my consistency was such as it has never been before. I had a lot of spectators, primarily because the match was just so darn long--about 45 minutes past the time when everyone else on my team was finished. Hilary showed up after her away match. I wish I could have wrapped things up a little better, but I was so pleased with how this went and, well, just had a ton of fun. This was my second time playing #1 singles, and I am so eager to play more singles now that I've had this experience. I think I'm going to meet a friend to play tomorrow morning, just for more practice. Our final match of the USTA season is next week, but then I'll be starting a 3.0/3.5 combo league on Saturdays when this ends. Just when I'm ready to throw in the towel on something, it seems to turn itself right around and become infused with a new energy, so maybe I just will consider that tennis racket tattoo I joke about.
Here's a question in the air these days. Should you continue to school during the summer? Well, I guess that depends on what you call schooling. Though I still aspire, in some ways, to be completely child-led, in which summer, winter, fall, you name it, we'd just be living life, the fact is that right now, in order to feel okay about whether we are at least sort of on track with our perceived grade level. So for now, I'm trying to hit at least four days a week with math, handwriting (we're now on to copywork, where I'm having them copy short poems on lined paper, using correct form for letters), spelling, and grammar. Everyone hates grammar, and I have this feeling that though the work isn't hard, if they found themselves asked questions about subjects and predicates in six months that they would be glaring blankly at a test booklet. Though I will say, I was rather pleased to hear Walter declare that "diagramming sentences is fun." I love those compound subjects and their triangulating lines, too.
What I'm reading right now: The endless Harry Potter 5 (did I mention that Rutledge unwound and/or ripped 13 cassettes the other day?). The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Writer Mama. And some magazines. Ollie and I have been reading about World War II, the Holocaust, and the causes of the Vietnam War. And the perennial scary stories. We are finding that the back porch is now our favorite place to be. Yes, it smells like dog on a bad day, but usually it is a welcome respite from the cold temperatures of inside the house and is a haven set apart from the noise of indoors. I feel like we are finally bonding with this area that was the original selling point of our house. If only we could reclaim it from the animals and decorate it more comfortably, I think it really would be our favorite room.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Equal
I now have as many posts on this blog as I did on my long past one from a few years ago--24. Not that this matters. But I noticed this fact, and I decided it was blogworthy. So there it is.
Oh my, summer is here. Today was a gorgeous day. Okay, fine, this morning was a little cruddy looking, but it was the perfect day to go to Busch Gardens, which we did. Not too hot, but warm enough that you weren't a total ice cube after getting soaked on a ride. Which I did. I was heartily happy that I was wearing a navy blue shirt instead of a white one, and that my underwear roughly matched the tone of my light-colored shorts, which were clinging to me for hours after I got completely dumped on by the Roman Rapids. I've never seen Walter exuding such sheer joy as when probably 40 gallons of water went straight onto his head and decimated the map he was holding into a pulp (which, this being Walter, he scrunched up and sculpted into a chili pepper). The poor strangers we were riding with! Walter just talked their ear right off with his exuberant excitement in being soaked to the bone. Other notable moments: Rutledge cackling and shouting "Whee!" with his little chunky arms held high in the air on the Battering Ram (otherwise known as "The Bope" to Rutledge), Rutledge on the log flume, and Frances traumatized for the rest of the day by a ride that was too fast.
I've determined that I am spending too much mental energy in thinking about next school year and what we are doing, so I have decided to put some limits on it. I'm not being super-anal about it right now: I have 30 minutes at 4:00 to devote to this and then no more. But I am going to just give is what I can and leave the rest behind for now. I'm kind of off the trumpet thing at the moment. It's not working in our schedule, it may be the one thing too many (you know how that one goes...), and it will still be there next year, and the year after. I could take that trumpet time and money and put it toward a piano lesson three minutes away.
I think I already said that we decided to go ahead with gymnastics for Frances. Big time commitment. There go two nights a week. Ollie wants to try soccer. Walter might like to do that, too, so hey, why not? So that's something to look into. Like we need another sport, but they're only young once, and maybe now they are excited about it and willing to give it some more effort and a new try.
I'm exhausted, and I have a tennis game at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow all the way across town. Ack! It's my final one of the USTA season, and I'm glad for that. I'm over finding the child care, which is a scramble each week. I'm in a combo league starting in July, where players with different ratings are paired together, but that happens on Saturdays, when someone to watch the kids is less of a mystery. I will be playing probably #1 singles, which is always interesting, but I'm happy I'm getting the opportunity to do the more strenuous running game more often now. My legs are feeling much more toned because of it, and I have found that now when we do our evening walks to the Pavilion or the park, I'm not huffing and puffing at all or feeling the pain for days afterward.
I had all of these things to write about tonight, and suddenly they have all slipped my mind. Hmmm. Rutledge is now climbing out of his crib, so enter a whole new era in our lives. I'm way behind on staying in touch with people I need to talk to, partly because my phone time is limited by my nearly-defunct cell phone. I am a chronic multi-tasker, and without my phone with me when I'm out and about, I'm seriously limited in how much time I can spend at home taking care of adult business, either personal or volunteer. I learned my lesson well yesterday about what can happen if you let your attention slip for even a moment: Rutledge unwound 13 Harry Potter cassettes from the library, precipitating an entire afternoon of pencils spinning on tape gears and splicing with Scotch tape. Sigh.... And I thought I was *cleaning* when I was over vacuuming and making our lives look somewhat together!
Ollie and I are reading lately about inventions, which has been fascinating. He's even reading the book on his own when we're not doing it together. And we have been reading and talking about World War II, the Cold War, and terrorism. We're finally finding more friendly resources that are doing a better job of explaining the difference between politics and economics and more succinctly describing rival forms of government and rival forms of economic systems, which is helping him answer his own questions about why the U.S. might have involved itself with North Vietnam. Ollie is the man of a million questions, but no deep interests. I keep thinking that if we just read enough, finally something will get into him to a point where he wants to go past the surface and keep taking himself further.
Walter is Walter. Building traps for the chipmunk that is still in our house. Planting dead trees in holes in our backyard. Creating a display of his most challenging Bionicle figures. Having a war with tennis balls in the playroom. He keeps himself very busy.
In order to keep myself functioning, I absolutely must sign off and go to bed. Midnight. Again.
Oh my, summer is here. Today was a gorgeous day. Okay, fine, this morning was a little cruddy looking, but it was the perfect day to go to Busch Gardens, which we did. Not too hot, but warm enough that you weren't a total ice cube after getting soaked on a ride. Which I did. I was heartily happy that I was wearing a navy blue shirt instead of a white one, and that my underwear roughly matched the tone of my light-colored shorts, which were clinging to me for hours after I got completely dumped on by the Roman Rapids. I've never seen Walter exuding such sheer joy as when probably 40 gallons of water went straight onto his head and decimated the map he was holding into a pulp (which, this being Walter, he scrunched up and sculpted into a chili pepper). The poor strangers we were riding with! Walter just talked their ear right off with his exuberant excitement in being soaked to the bone. Other notable moments: Rutledge cackling and shouting "Whee!" with his little chunky arms held high in the air on the Battering Ram (otherwise known as "The Bope" to Rutledge), Rutledge on the log flume, and Frances traumatized for the rest of the day by a ride that was too fast.
I've determined that I am spending too much mental energy in thinking about next school year and what we are doing, so I have decided to put some limits on it. I'm not being super-anal about it right now: I have 30 minutes at 4:00 to devote to this and then no more. But I am going to just give is what I can and leave the rest behind for now. I'm kind of off the trumpet thing at the moment. It's not working in our schedule, it may be the one thing too many (you know how that one goes...), and it will still be there next year, and the year after. I could take that trumpet time and money and put it toward a piano lesson three minutes away.
I think I already said that we decided to go ahead with gymnastics for Frances. Big time commitment. There go two nights a week. Ollie wants to try soccer. Walter might like to do that, too, so hey, why not? So that's something to look into. Like we need another sport, but they're only young once, and maybe now they are excited about it and willing to give it some more effort and a new try.
I'm exhausted, and I have a tennis game at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow all the way across town. Ack! It's my final one of the USTA season, and I'm glad for that. I'm over finding the child care, which is a scramble each week. I'm in a combo league starting in July, where players with different ratings are paired together, but that happens on Saturdays, when someone to watch the kids is less of a mystery. I will be playing probably #1 singles, which is always interesting, but I'm happy I'm getting the opportunity to do the more strenuous running game more often now. My legs are feeling much more toned because of it, and I have found that now when we do our evening walks to the Pavilion or the park, I'm not huffing and puffing at all or feeling the pain for days afterward.
I had all of these things to write about tonight, and suddenly they have all slipped my mind. Hmmm. Rutledge is now climbing out of his crib, so enter a whole new era in our lives. I'm way behind on staying in touch with people I need to talk to, partly because my phone time is limited by my nearly-defunct cell phone. I am a chronic multi-tasker, and without my phone with me when I'm out and about, I'm seriously limited in how much time I can spend at home taking care of adult business, either personal or volunteer. I learned my lesson well yesterday about what can happen if you let your attention slip for even a moment: Rutledge unwound 13 Harry Potter cassettes from the library, precipitating an entire afternoon of pencils spinning on tape gears and splicing with Scotch tape. Sigh.... And I thought I was *cleaning* when I was over vacuuming and making our lives look somewhat together!
Ollie and I are reading lately about inventions, which has been fascinating. He's even reading the book on his own when we're not doing it together. And we have been reading and talking about World War II, the Cold War, and terrorism. We're finally finding more friendly resources that are doing a better job of explaining the difference between politics and economics and more succinctly describing rival forms of government and rival forms of economic systems, which is helping him answer his own questions about why the U.S. might have involved itself with North Vietnam. Ollie is the man of a million questions, but no deep interests. I keep thinking that if we just read enough, finally something will get into him to a point where he wants to go past the surface and keep taking himself further.
Walter is Walter. Building traps for the chipmunk that is still in our house. Planting dead trees in holes in our backyard. Creating a display of his most challenging Bionicle figures. Having a war with tennis balls in the playroom. He keeps himself very busy.
In order to keep myself functioning, I absolutely must sign off and go to bed. Midnight. Again.
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