Non Neurotypical Home Decor

I may or may not have blogged about the disaster that is our kitchen floor.  The short version is that a hidden leak from a newly installed dishwasher caused serious damage and the floor needs to be replaced.  This is the floor that was supposed to last our lifetime when we put it in 15 years ago.  And it might have, as we used VCT tile and a plywood underlayment.  But even quality supplies can not withstand weeks of sneaky water damage.

Dealing with the insurance issues has been an exercise in patience.  They wanted us to go after the plumber who made the mistake.  I work in the business world. I understand liability very well.  But in my opinion I pay a homeowners policy for a reason.  It is for situations like this and it is up to THEM to go after the plumbers insurance if they want to do so.  Not up to me.  Especially since this same plumber fixes my furnace when it doesn't work in the middle of winter.  Quickly.  Without complaint.  And has worked for us for 20 years and this is the first mistake they have made. Everyone makes mistakes. We are all human and imperfect. So at last we have a meeting of the minds whereby I will eat the $500 deductable and my insurer will pay the rest of the cost of the new floor.

So we have moved on from having constant convos with insurance people to actually picking out the tile.  Our previous tile was mostly white with green lines running through it.  Pretty but it shows EVERY speck of dirt.  And trust me, with 4 kids and a dog and a cat, there are lots of um, specks! LOL  Our kitchen island is green on the yellow tone of a green as opposed to the blue tones.  Our other counter is corian and sort of a sandstone color. The walls are knotty pine. 

K and I looked at sample boards last evening and narrowed it down to 3 colors that we liked.  The two we liked the most were golden colored.  They actually sort of looked like the golden yellow of the pine floors of the adjacent dining room. In the interest of democracy we called in each kid and asked which of the two yellows they liked.  They made their choice.  Then Chet came in to vote.  And told us that both yellows look like dried urine.

Um.  OK.  While I realize that Chet has color deficianicies that mean he doesn't see colors as we do, I don't know if this was how he truly sees it or just said for shock value.  At any rate, what I DO know is that he would say this to every.single.person.  Every time someone came over, Chet would say this to them.  He fixates like that.  Now I could personally overlook that, but it was clear from K's response that hearing this even one more time that night was going to send her round the bend.

Our new floor will be green.

Musical Self Analysis

Rob and I finished watching the VMA's tonight. We had to tape the last half of them last night and see them tonite.  I am trying to get him to be able to stay up a bit later and still be able to function the next day but he does still really need a lot of sleep.  So we called it a night last night at 10ish. 

Music is a great way to connect with teens--especially teens that otherwise are less than talkative.  They love to share tidbits about the artists they like, dis or applaud as they see fit and tell me interesting factoids (such as Linkin Park did the sound track for the Transformer movies. . . my life is richer for knowing that LOL)  But it is a bonding kind of thing and I enjoy so many kinds of music. . .

The funny thing is that I have always said I have not got the ability to remember songs from the past though.  You know how people have that song from way back in high school that they remember.  It defines their experiences.  Or a song that was playing when they met their love etc etc.  Well I remember artists I liked but I could never seem to remember the lyrics.  Maybe a chorus but that would be it.  K on the other hand would be belting out Billy Joe's Piano Man or Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell and staring at me when I could only sort of bob my head and hum

VH1 has reassured me.  I do not have early onset alzheimers musicalus.  I discovered that although I like LOTS of music, I seem to have a leaning toward hip hop.  How do I know this?  I was listening to a VH1 special on the top 100 hip hop songs of all time.  And I KNEW them.  I could sing them!

So although I enjoyed Billy Joel, and Bob Seger and White Snake in my younger days, apparently my deeper musical leanings are hip hop and r&b.The thing is, that among my friends there was NO ONE who listened to R and B and hip hop.  So the songs that I shared with my friends at school, with K, those were rock songs.  Which I enjoyed, but obviously didn't love enough to remember deeply. Go figure!  This bit of musical psycho analysis is brought to you by VH*1 LOL

Birthday Celebrating!

So yesterday we celebrated my birthday.  My whole  birthday thing is sort of weird as I was actually born in January but claim September 9th as the day I  celebrate my birthday. But then this year September 9th was KC's first art class which effectively precluded having a party.  The following day was Rob's first piano lesson.  Ditto. Saturday my wife works a 10 hour shift so I had suggested we have the party on Sunday.  Which worked well except my poor wife was a little frazzled as she forgot about it. (laughing)  The kids of course didn't.  They are all about parties. 

KC decided that I would start the day with breakfast in bed and he got up at 5:30 with Kirsty to make that happen.  (fresh muffins in bed are a truly decadent pleasure!)  Lissa woke minutes later and came to my door.  In a loud stage whisper said to me:  "OOMA I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO YOU:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY."  Then she marched downstairs to help with the breakfast prep.  Her job was picking some flowers from our garden to bring up.  I am enjoying the last of our brown eyed susans in our room now.

Rob made me a braided necklace which is really cool. Somehow the braid is rounded.  I have no idea how he did it; he learned at camp.  Chet gave me a certificate for a CD of my choice (it was wise of him to let me choose as I have very different taste in music from him)  Lissa gave me a new vest to wear on chilly days when it isn't quite coat weather and my wife gave me a Patriots hoodie. 

I felt very very loved.

Bear with me!

In an odd turn of events for a homeschooling family, I am proud to introduce "back to school bear!"  Someone gave us this cute white teddy and while he was lovely, my kids have a ton of stuffed animals and I am chary about having too many around due to our allergies and KC's family history of asthma.  But the bear was so cute I turned him into a front porch decoration.  You can't really tell from the pic but the pencil he is holding is one we got as a souvenier somewhere and it looks like it was made from a twig.  Small things amuse me, what can I say?

I envision turning him into  Halloween bear for October, and something Thankgivingish in November and Santa's helper in December.  I figure why pay for those silly geese statues that you can dress up when I got a bear for free?  (actually the geese are not silly. I have long coveted them, but I also live in the town that invented the plastic pink flamingo so I figure I am predisposed to such things by osmosis or something!)

Rob tries piano!

So today was Rob's first piano class.  He and his teacher really seemed to hit it off.  It is only 30 minutes which is a great time fit for him.  The instructor said he has some good musical instincts and was surprised to learn he hasn't really had much in the line of musical education up till now.  K said our Rob had a big smile on his face when he came out and that was worth it all to me.  

KC's First Art Class!

A friend who is also a talented artist has begun classes for children from the studio space in her home.  We enrolled KC for the first three months.  It is about a 30 minute jaunt from our house so we will not be continuing through the winter.  But for my art loving wee lad, I think this is a match made in heaven.  J is exciting, creative and not the type of art teacher to imply that there is a "right" way or a "wrong" way to create.  It was important to me that this not be the case.  I know too many kids who lost a love of art because of an ill chosen teaching style or a careless word by a teacher.  For KC art is tremendously cathartic and essential.  He literally goes nowhere without paper and at least a pencil.  Sometimes crayons or a pen as well.  If we hike, he has to stop and sketch what he wants to remember. If we are waiting somewhere, he has to doodle.  If this wellspring was accidently capped, I think he would lose a way that he makes sense of his world and remains the grounded little fellow that he is.

He came home from his session absolutely glowing.  They had learned a bit about Georgia O'Keefe and used her artistic style as an inspiration for their drawings.  He was so animated and happy and his sunflower picture is all ready hanging on the bedroom wall.  While they were gone, I got Fiona's scrapbook pages together from our last visit so that i can mail those to her on Saturday morning.

Tomorrow, Rob will meet his new piano teacher and we will hope that this is a good a match for him.  I'll be buying all my clothes at the thrift store this year but that is not really a hardship.  Seeing the way these experiences help my kids to blossom and grow is priceless.

Back to the Gym!

No, not me, Lissa.  (though I love working out, keeping up with the kiddos consists of my workouts these days!) Yesterday marked the start of the new gymnastics year and Lissa was sooooooo ready. She has been marking this down for the three weeks hiatus between the end of the abbreviated summer session and the start of the real classes in the fall.

It amazes me that my daughter who can't sit still for virtually anything at home can sit angelically on the floor while her coach explains the components of 5 stations and demonstrates.  Other kids jump up and try and run over and begin a station during the explanation, but not Lissa. 

This class is a bit of a step up from her beginner class so we are working on her holding my hand less when on the apparatus and letting her coach spot her.  Mostly I am okay with this, but part of me feels a pang too because the gym is a place where she wants to hold my hand.  Many times I have to remind her to hold my hand for safety; she is so independent that she doesn't want to just companionably walk holding hands. (by contrast KC will still do this at 6)

On the balance beam she got a little bored at the first station with just stepping over the obstacles placed on it so she jumped over them. Coach M loved it and said this is the "next step" so apparently we just hopped to a new skill. (chuckle)

Then we got to a station where there was an inclined pad to tumble on.  Lissa figured out how to do a dive roll in our living room last week (she routinely tries to give me gray hair I swear!) and she put this into play there.  Coach M said that most 3 y/o's don't have the arm strength for this and did I teach it to her. I said not at all, she did it in our living room and I told her she had to wait and do it in class for her coach.  So while all the rest of the class did regular tumblesaults, Lissa did diving rolls.  Aside from the benefit of having a place to shine and a skill that is unique to our family, the thing I have noticed most is that she focusses better and is less hair trigger temper when she has the outlet of gymnastics.  It isn't just the physicality as we are a very active family and say, substituting kick ball or hiking or a day at the beach don't have the same effect.  I don't understand it but I like it!