“The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating — in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around like rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.” – Anne Morris, but I found it here.
Around two o’clock this afternoon I was writing a cranky blog post in my head. All about how tired I am these days, how I keep making myself ill with the food I shovel in, how I’m living life in a fog, and dreading my WW meeting tomorrow… do you sense a theme here?
Instead I chose to go sit with Lex for the remainder of his quiet time and listen to him practice the piano. Then he and I came downstairs and I got him started on embroidering! I picked up five different hoops from a woman on Freecycle (freecycle rocks, btw!) this morning and the kids loved them! I used some old green fabric with a large-ish weave. Lex drew his picture with white crayon and then started embroidering. Shortly thereafter he declared embroidering to be awesome and sewing as his new favorite craft. :)
He has big plans for this project. I hope they work out. It will be awesome! :)
Then I woke Eve up from her two hour nap (swimming wears her out!) and she came down to join us. She wasn’t gung ho on the embroidering at first. We had snack (popcorn, their favorite) and she washed dishes for awhile (or played in the water under the guise of washing dishes!) and then decided to try her hand at embroidering.
She had a little less patience with the project, but I think she had fun overall and she said she wants to keep working on it. I’m so proud of them both!
Meanwhile, between helping them with the crafts I was able to make zucchini cheddar bread, two loaves of whole wheat sandwich bread, AND fried tofu with pesto, rice pilaf, and squash for dinner! What a productive afternoon!
Bedtime ran a little late of course, but everyone was happy (particularly me!) so all is good. I just got Lex in bed and Alan is reading a bit longer with Eve. Hopefully she’s not up all night!
Here are a few other highlights from the day:
In summary, my kids are awesome crafters, and just plain awesome kids, and just because part of the day is crappy doesn’t mean you can’t turn it around and wind up calling it a pretty awesome day!
When I picked the kids up from swim camp today Lex was super excited to tell me that he went in the big pool today! The big pool is the competition pool that he has so far completely and totally resisted even being near. His teacher said he wore a life jacket, but he didn’t mention that part to me ;) She said it only took a little bit of encouragement and he had a great time. He says he’ll be jumping in again tomorrow! I love that boy!
Sadly I was not there to take pictures :(
I’m super excited about our afternoon activities. I’m actually ridiculously tired and ready for bed at 7:30pm, but first, a blog post!
I have been thinking about teaching the kids to sew this summer. Ever since Eve separated the petals from an entire bouquet of flower, into her hat, telling me all the while about how she’s going to sew them into a flower petal quilt as soon as we get home. This was two months ago! I’ve been thinking about it, googling “how to sew with kids,” bugging my poor over worked friend Anna who sews her own kids’ clothes, and I’ve probably mentioned it once or twice to the kids. As it usually goes around here, I think about something until the kids push me into actually doing it. Anna showed me an adorable skirt project that I thought Eve would love to do with me. Eve, however, came down from quiet time with her own plan in mind – to sew a quilt for her doggy! I tried to talk her into the skirt, but no deal. I tried to get her to do an introductory project (sewing on a paper plate) but no way. She was focused on a quilt! So we dug out the fabric scraps I have and she went to work. I had to encourage her to draw it out first (a few scribbles on a scrap of paper) and then lay it out on the floor. Meanwhile I cut out the “pattern” (ie: large rectangle) for the skirt I want to make for her and Lex joined the party and happily started the paper plate project. He wrote his name in block letters and then we/he poked holes around it, then he stitched with the holes. Once I had him on a roll and gave up on trying to convince Eve to work with me on the skirt project, I agreed to let her start sewing. I did not agree to the sewing machine though! I thought hand stitching would be a better way to start. :) I held the fabric pieces together and she stitched. It went really, really well. She got three pieces together, he got one and a half letters done, and I felt really relaxed and happy.
Then we moved to the kitchen so I could get dinner ready. Of course by “get dinner ready” I mean cook a few bowls of oatmeal for them and reheat some soup for me. At that point they just lost it. They are super tired these days from Splash Camp. Eve started crying about everything, Lex went a little spastic, and I got a major headache. Oh well. The good afternoon was worth it. We skipped bath and they were both in bed my 7pm! I’m next! :)
PS. I was too lazy to put up all the individual pictures in full size, but it you click on the collage above it will get bigger and you can see more details.
The kids are at Splash Camp this week and SUPER excited! They have been waiting for this for months! There was no delaying or fussing getting out the door this morning. I’m a little nervous about how they are going to do sunscreen and bathing suits and all of that by themselves, but I’m sure they’ll be fine without me. That’s a hard thing to say!
Unicorn Eve. How else do you start a new week?! Lex is working on a unicorn mask in the background.
Two super excited swimmers! See the hot air balloon in the background? I love this area!
They were so eager to join the group I had to stop them and request hugs and kisses. So it begins. Sigh. The girl sitting next to Lex is one of his favorite friends from school. Total coincidence!
I was a little sad to drop them off and leave. Fortunately I have a hot date with my cool car and the Toyota Service Department! Well, I suppose technically my car has a hot date with the service department and I have a long wait in the waiting room. Sigh. Happy Monday!
I remember being sooo excited the day they switched to carts with two seats at BJs.
They both wanted to ride in the cart this week and I had a flashback to years ago.
They are growing! :) (the quality of my phone camera has also improved over the years)
I keep thinking we’re half way through July already, but then I look at the calendar and realize that it’s only the first week! So much for my slow summer vacation!
Here are a few pics of what’s been going on around here.
When we got home from Franklin the kids ran right over to the black raspberry patch and picked a big bowlful. I remember doing that last year as well. Does that now make it an annual tradition? :)
Then they spent some time hanging out together in the playhouse. Just chilling. Happy to be home. Obliging me for the occasional photo.
We’ve had a few very hot nights. Their bedroom is the worst! What you can’t see here are the ice packs, wrapped in wash clothes, tucked under their backs. They think it’s a special “hot night” treat to get to cuddle with ice packs. :)
Daddy to the rescue! Alan installed the super loud AC that we normally put right in their room into the storage room instead. With long ducting he has jerry rigged (excuse me, Alan-rigged!) central air for their bedroom. Lex calls it “Awesome Air Conditioning!”
Fourth of July preparations. Glow sticks, patriotic “boppy tails,” picnic dinner… thunderstorms! Oh well.
What do you bring to the playground? We had a big playdate with a bunch of Eve’s pre-k classmates. She insisted on bringing a full picnic (wooden food) and a (wooden) birthday cake! I thought she was crazy but the kids loved it!
Thanks to our CSA pickup Lex got one full serving of greens this week! That container was full of snap peas… now Lex is full of snap peas! One serving of greens a week is sufficient for a growing boy, right?!
We attended a birthday party at a playground this afternoon. A playground we used to go to all the time when the kids were younger, but haven’t been there in several years. They LOVED this new climbing structure!
They also loved this rocking toy! I’m going to see if I can find a picture of them on this thing when they were younger… more age appropriate for the toy!
Then a few more kids joined the fun! They had a BLAST! A little chaotic, but no one got hurt. That’s the sign of a good birthday party at the playground!
We had quiet time today from 4:15-5:15, after we got home from our morning activities and afternoon parties. Lex decided to do his piano practicing and homework at quiet time. He’s so excited, and adorable!
I just got lost in my own blog again looking for a picture of them on that rocking toy at the playground years ago. Sometimes I wish I had a “Like” button on the blog! I’d press it a lot. On my own blog posts. How’s that for self confidence! Or self amusement. :)
Now Alan is home and the laundry needs folding and the kitchen needs cleaning and I need to say goodnight.
I signed Lex up for piano lessons. He has been super excited, until, of course, this morning when it was time to go! Fortunately I was able to get him out the door with relatively little fuss and we made it to his first lesson. He absolutely LOVED it! The woman teaches lessons in her apartment. She also holds group lessons once a month which she encourages kids to attend so they can meet other piano players and play together. I think he’ll like that once he gets a little more practice. She was very impressed with his existing knowledge, once or twice glancing over his head towards me with a look of surprise. He is so excited and loved the lesson. As I was sitting there listening to them (parents are encouraged to stay, which is a good thing because I was staying) I was noticing how completely comfortable he was. The place was homey (her home!) and quiet and it was just the two of them together. He just settled right in and played!
Each finger gets a number. They practiced wiggling each number. :)
He’s so cute! He has to scoot his little butt back and forth across the bench to reach from one end of the piano to the other.
Alan had Eve for the morning so when we left we decided to get some lunch. Along the way we found a sparkling piano! To celebrate their 50 years, the Hopkins Center has placed 50 pianos all around town (the exhibit is called Hands On Pianos). Each has been donated and decorated by local businesses and artists. There is also a Valley Quest to go along with the exhibit. Each piano has a letter written on one of the keys. Collect all of the letters and they form a song.
Lex and I got some lunch, ate outside on a bench, and stopped along the way to play several of the pianos. He is excited about the Valley Quest and we’re going to try to find all 50 pianos this month! :)
This one was missing it’s letter!
Some of the pianos have extra games on them. This one has 50 smiling faces, some more famous than others. They challenge you to identify as many as you can and email them. I think there is a prize for the person who can identify the most. It will not be me!
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We got in the car and were about to pull out of the parking space when Lex spotted this one. We had a few minutes left on the meter so we jumped out of the car again and went to check it out.
This is a neat looking one with whales swimming above the skyline.
We spent quite a bit of time at this one once we realized the front opened up. Most of the others were painted shut or somehow otherwise secured shut! Lex studied the inner workings of the piano while I did my best to explain things to him. His mechanical mind is so far beyond mine!
This afternoon we went to a birthday part at a playground and despite everyone being hot, tired, and hungry on the way home we took a quick stop at this piano we spotted along the way.
When we finally got home this afternoon we printed the Valley Quest and matched up the clues we could with the pianos we visited this morning. We know where a few more are and are exited to visit them and find the rest. Apparently the game ends on July 31st, so we have to stay focused! :)
Lex was brave tonight and went to the counter to order his own dessert. I let him, but couldn’t resist dashing over for a quick pic. :)
Happy 4th of July! Or, as Lex insists we say, Happy Independence Day! “Otherwise you’re just saying the date,” he says.
We spent the morning following Lex’s schedule (he was so pleased!) and didn’t fall off schedule until 11am! Pretty good, eh? :) We spent the afternoon eating popsicles and playing baseball outside with the neighbors. At 6:30, when we were all packed up and ready to walk down the hill for our local fireworks extravaganza, the sky opened up! A quick weather check showed the forecast had changed from chance of showers to 95% chance of severe storms. Lightening, hail, high winds, etc. We decided to stay home and Alan suggested a movie night instead. As we settled in the living room, “Animal Crackers” (Marx Brothers) on the TV, animal crackers in a bowl, and daddy doling out M&Ms, the sky opened up again and the downpour validated our decision.
Thunderboomers, rain, and massive giggles in the living room. Life is good, thanks to those brave men and women who founded this country and defend her still today!