Star Burst/cloud burst!

Saturday was indeed a busy day. Lynned came out to visit and we had a good time together. It is funny; she and I have a great relationship. In some ways better than she and her sister K who have all this emotional baggage between them. It becomes so little kid snarking at one another when they are together. I think maybe Lynne wishes she was more like K and this is the source of the relentless picking at her that she does. But whatever. She and I don't have that history so we just have fun. And things that bug K don't necessarily bug me. Like Lynne watches waaaaaay more TV than we do in our house. And she watches what I call the "way back machine." TV shows from when she was a child. (think Chips, Marcus Welby, 8 is enough) She sometimes gets into a rut where she starts quoting from these shows to you. I sort of ignore it. If it starts to bug me I have this really dumb look totally perfected. Let my jaw gap slightly stare a moment without speaking, finally say "huh?. . . . (long pause). . . OH! you mean some TV show?" Tends to stop it! Also it isn't hard for me to perfect the look since I usually genuinely have no clue.

We did all our errands with the kids, stopped by work to see K briefly as usual and came home and unloaded and I made one and all lunch. Then KC wanted to show her his scrapbook so she spent time looking at that and then it was time for her to hit the road.

I spent the rest of the afternoon packing for the starburst festival we were walking to. I packed rain gear as it was a possibility of showers. I packed a blanket to feast on. I packed bubble toys, football, frisbee and badminton to keep children happy. I packed enough food for an army. I made 2 quarts of lemonade and packed that. With the exception of all the toys which I put in a back pack, I fit EVERYTHING in the two baskets underneath our double stroller.

KC was beside himself with excitment. He awoke actually at 5 a.m. too excited to sleep with the double dose of fun that day---Auntie Lynne AND starburst! LOL I had to keep finding jobs for him to do while i packed so that the time would pass more easily for him. Finally, at 4 p.m. we were ready to set off. KC alternately rode with Lissa and walked till we got to the busy area. There is one short section where there is no sidewalk and extreme caution must be used. I made him ride all during that but then once we hit sidewalks again he was off and running. We found a nice picnic spot up by some big old pine trees that ring the local football field where the festival is held. We set up camp and the kids began eating as though they had not seen food in years. LOL Then we played and played. We didn't walk around all that much as it is hard to push the double stroller on uneven terrain and through the large crowds. Chet stood near us but not with us, a weird compromise that gave him a feeling of quasi independence. Some teens were part of a diversity scavenger hunt. They had to get pictures of themselves with people of many different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Chet had his pic snapped a bunch of times because he is Asian Indian and he totally adored this 15 minutes of fame!

KC was excited because he saw his Spirit Play teacher working the concession stand. He waved like crazy to her; it was too funny. This was the first year Lissa really had much of a clue as to what was going on. Last year she was on me in the sling and didn't really have a grasp of much of anything. She so wanted the little boy on the next blanket to play football with her, but at 5 he thought himself way too cool to play with a 2 year old! LOLl

Finally about 7 p.m. the exhaustion of his day hit KC like a ton of bricks. He said he was tired and I dropped one side of the stroller. He lay down, I covered him up and he fell asleep. He didn't waken when the police on ATV's rode past, when kids ran by, when this boys sleeps, he SLEEPS!
Meanwhile, Lissa and Rob are running around and Chet is still getting his picture snapped.

About 8 p.m. the skies open up. We are not talking drizzle. We are talking serious down pour. I have KC covered in a rain coat but his legs still get wet. Ditto with Lissa. Rob refuses to keep his rain coat on. apparently rain coats are not cool when you are 13. However I personally don't find getting wet and chilled "cool" either so I was not amused. The rain lasts about 20 minutes. I decide along with a horde of other folks that I am not going to wait it out.

I explain to the older boys that we are walking home. Now THEY are not amused. But there is a starburst festival every year and I remind them that we go every year. Grudgingly they help pack and we join the throng who are not hearty enough to wait till 9:30 in the cold and damp.

We get home about 9 and shortly thereafter here a very short volley of fireworks. My guess is that they did a very abbreviated display becuase charges may have been getting moist. I still wasn't sorry we left early.

Despite it all, it was fun in a crazy zany way that maybe you can only understand if you are a member of my crazy zany household. And I figure i got a heck of a work out. It is about a mile and a half each way and I had to be pushing about 70 or 75 pounds of children and gear in the stroller!

Let the sun shine!

OK I so know that i could never live in Seattle. Or the rain forest. OTOH I could probably live happily in AZ where they have something like 355 sunny days. I need sun. Deep down totally need it. Without it my normally cheerful demeanor begins to wilt To mold. I gradually turn into a nasty person even I don't want to be around. And since I can't not be around myself, I consider that a real problem.

It has rained and been cloudy since last Sunday. I am so done with this. I have been trying so hard to make the best of it. Despite the yucky weather (and it has also been unseasonably cold as well) I have taken the kids out to play every night but one. (that night was pouring) It has served to tire them out, but I notice that they are not their normal happy little selves really. I think they are feeling wilty from lack of sun as well.

Tonight we went to a friends house for a much anticipated play date. These are friends we made at the park and they recently moved into a lovely new home. We have been trying to get together at their new home to play but a myriad of issues prevented it till tonight. The kids had fun, the house is lovely, but it was exhausting. Being in someone else's home with 3 kids and a house that is not baby proofed the same way mine is, stresses me out. Everyone's 2 year old is different. I know the 2 year old we were playing with who lives there is not nearly the dare devil that my Lissa is. The fact that there was free access to 2 stories of stairs gave me the willies. Hardwood stairs. The pool is unfenced at present, though that is going to change soon. It is covered with a cover that is supposed to be child proof. Do you really think I trust that? I'd like to but the reality is I was a life guard all through high school. I know how easy it is for someone to drown. And due to all our rain there was 3 inches of water ON TOP of the supposedly child proof cover. That, my friends, is deep enough to drown.

Then of course, getting the kids to leave was a challenge. Lissa did her ear shattering scream all the way home. She was over tired and over stimulated. I all ready had my monthly migraine. She sent it into the stratosphere. But in all reality it was not her fault. We were much later coming home than when we simply go to the park. And our park visit has a routine that is rarely altered much. A certain way we walk there, certain toys we bring, a certain song we sing when we leave and come home, a snack time . . . what can I say my kids like routine. I am glad we went, it was fun in its way, but I was even more glad to get home and get them bathed and a bed.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. Kirsty's sister is spending the day and in the evening I am taking all the kids to a concert and fireworks. I am a glutton for punishment.

Dealing with Disappointments

One of the things I have noticed about my kids is that depending on their prior life experiences and/or their disabilities is the way they handle disappointments. Or don't handle them. I always do my absolute level best to make sure anything I say will happen, does. It is important that they know my word can be trusted, that I am someone who will follow through. However obviously I don't control the weather, our extended family (though I have put the fear of whatever power one believes into them about promising and not coming through!) or friends. Likewise I can't control misconceptions on the part of said children. This week we had that type of experience with KC.

He watches PBS TV and on the childrens show they apparently began to advertise about an upcoming tour of those demented men known as the Wiggles. I am not seriously against the Wiggles. Kids love them. They are harmless. I just think that pretty much all adults that have to behave as the Wiggles do should either have very good um "supplements" to their diets and lots of cash for their efforts! LOL

Anyway, day one he comes out and gives me a very garbled story about new Wiggles stuff. I nod, ignore and keep doing the dishes. Day 2 he comes out and he has figured out that the Wiggles are going on tour. Nothing else, so I again am not really clued into this. Day 3, the report is that "the Wiggles are going on tour. They are coming to a city near US!" OK now i know I need to find out more. I go on line. The Wiggles are indeed going on tour. And they are not coming anywhere near us. It would be a minimum of an 8 hour (one way) drive to experience the thrill of the "Let's go bananas" tour with our wiggly friends. So I explained this to KC. I expected arguing. That is what Chet would do. For hours. He would create 50 million scenarios that would allow you to do what he wanted, even if it was at the expense of other family members. I expected sullenness. That is what Rob would do. Just be quietly miserable to me. I expected screaming which at 2 is Lissa's mode of expression when displeased. I swear the girl could shatter glass. But none of that happened.

Instead, he stood silently for a minute. Then he walked out into the kitchen with his hands clasped behind his back. "Lissa! Robbie!" he called. "I have some bad news. The Wiggles are NOT coming to a city near us after all and we won't get to see them live." Now aside from the fact that at 13, Rob was probably dancing with joy inside, I was just so beyond happy to see that he could handle it this way. I know that the other kids can't necessarily help their responses. They are informed by negative life experiences, by the results of their first parents addictions, by their disabilities. But those responses can in some cases be modified over time. At least because I am an optimist I believe that. Even for Chet who is so stuck in early teen behavior, I have hope that eventually I will get him to "young adult". I hope that eventually Rob will learn the value of talking things through and seeing that we control what we can, but can't control the world. And Lissa of course is too young to know much beyond her immediate wants and needs.

Meanwhile, I celebrate the fact that one of my four seems to have a grasp on that, and we are in the midst of planning our own "Wiggly movie celebration" for a date to be determined in August which is when the Wiggles tour is.

Monday at the park

OK almost every night after supper we dash out the door and head to the park. I pull Elisabeth in the wagon (gee I love that wagon, glad Santa brought that!) Sometimes KC rides too but most times he runs most of the way with his big bro Robbie. There are numerous stone walls on the walk that call out to him. Two of them are built with those interlocking stones and he has learned that though they are tall he can find foot and hand holds and climb up to the top of them himself. He is very proud of this. As someone who always wanted to learn technical climbing I applaud his efforts!

Usually there are lots of kids to play with and a cadre of "regulars" that have become park buds with us. Last night, there were none. As in zero. No soccer game in progress. No kids period. My kids were depressed! They like playing with me but they like playing with others too and who could blame them.

So it wasn't the most exciting of park nights but we did have a blast right at the end when they decided it was time to pick flowers to bring home to mom. Wild roses bloom around the edge of the field so I picked those, careful of the thorns. Lissa went for the giant purple clovers, and KC found the buttercups calling to him. Rob chose asters and a tiny blooming flower that I think were bluets. All together it made a spectacular bouquet and she was duly impressed.

Our Community Garden

We planted our community garden plot today. I love this and luckily I have managed to enthuse our kids about the experience as well. This will be our third year at the garden. You don't get the same plot each year so we have learned that there is no value to the time and energy of double digging beds. Better to put landscape cloth over everything and get your plants in the ground. A garden pro also told us that this helps prevent the spread of disease from other people' s plants. Cool.

Some of the folks there are repeaters like us and we meet and greet and re-acquaint. Usually people like to stop by and talk with us. I think as much because I am wearing Lissa in a hiking backpack while I grub in the dirt planting tomatos as anything else. For some reason this seems so wild to other people but ordinary to me.

Before I stuffed her in the Kelty, all the kids helped clear the site of rocks. This is a job perfectly suited to my rock loving kiddos. All entered into this with enthusiasm usually reserved for the winners of Publishers Clearing House. Then while Kirsty laid the landscape cloth, I put Lissa in the carrier and on my back, gave the kids their snacks to re-charge and then we started planting. We have a small row of ornamental corn, hoping to grow essentially our own harvest decorations. We have 2 places where we planted pumpkins. KC is the pumpkin grower extraordinaire. This year he chose both white and orange varieties. Rob has always wanted to try corn so that was the impetus there. Then we have tomatos up the wazoo. We can a lot. Make our own sauce. Make our own salsa to use and give as gifts. We need lots of tomatos.

Unfortunately due to the bad economy more people wanted plots than ever before and in order to squeeze out more, the plots are smaller this year than in y ears past. So we over bought on our tomatos and wound up with a number of packs left over. We made friends with some fellow gardeners by gifting them with some of the tomatos, a la Pay it Forward. Good gardens make good neighbors I think! (grin) The other flat of tomatos we are going to try and container garden here at home. Our yard doesn't do spectacularly in the light category but we are going to give it a go. I also will have window boxes with basil as there wasn't room for that this year. Oh and we planted zuchinni. The boys could help actually plant and water; Lissa was mostly the cheering section in that area.

Our economic reality this year was that we are not able to afford buying the 2 CSA boxes that we have done in years past. I wish we could do it. I believe passionately that we should eat as close to home as possible, both for optimum health and because it makes no economic or environmental sense to me to eat foods shipped from all over the place. I am instead going to frequent the farmers markets and try and score some deals on fruits and veggies that way. We typically put most of our vegetables by with summer canning and freezing so it is important that I find a venue for this.

I am jazzed about our garden spot though. It looks good, the plants are a mix of heirloom and some more common ones. I love the way gardening takes a piece of ground that doesn't look like much and helps it to bear bounty. And one of our gardening neighbors has decided she wants to learn to can so we can even share that knowledge with others. It is sort of becoming a lost art; people stare at me when they hear I can. I take it as a compliment that they think I am too young to know how to do this.

The reality is that I grew up canning tomatos and pasta sauce with my family. My job was always the icky peeling off the skin in the cold water bath. But I learned the whole process by many years of helping and it has paid off. We have built on that knowledge and can make pickles, the aforementioned salsa, can our own pie fillings (typically apple and peach are the most cost effective in our region) and jams and jellies. With the apple pie filling, we save the peels and make a scrumptious apple peel jelly. Depending on the variety of apple it is either golden jelly that looks like sunshine in a jar, or soft pink like dawn just breaking. At any rate, always pretty on the shelves.

So now another growing season unfolds with promise and possibilities. Life is so good!

Bumps in the road

Ugh. Bumps in the road are inevitable. I know this, and yet, when long periods of time go relatively sans bumps, I get complacent. I get to thinking and hoping that yup, we've dealt with that. I stop thinking and asking myself what will my strategy be for when I have to deal iwth it again.

What a dumb cluck! Rob has always had issues of honesty as in he is the world's craziest liar. He has always had issues of taking things of others and hiding them and taking his own things at times he shouldn't. (i.e. taking electronics to bed) I also should have remembered that for some reason, his birthday tends to be a trigger time for these things. I don't actually know why; I don't think he knows why. There is nothing written in his big ole file that would ever shed any light on this, but I can honestly say that when he was in public school there were always behavioral issues in the 2 wks leading up to his birthday and for a week or two afterwards as well.

But somehow being as there are 52 wks in a year, and I am the consummate pollyanna who always believes things will get better, I didn't see this coming. Rob hadn't taken anything in awhile. He had been relatively honest, with only "omissions" of the typical variety one would expect of kids.

My first clue should have been the week before his birthday. He became very sluggish during the day. He is always quiet but this was way more so. I thought maybe his spring allergies were starting to kick in. But instead I found his Nintendo DS under his pillow which meant he was staying awake at night playing video games. The boy just can not function without sleep and video games truly seem to do scary things to his brain so we limit their usage. We handled that. For his birthday he got a digital camera so he can bring it to camp this summer. He spent the evening happily snapping pics and exploring functions. Then he put it down of his own volition about 7 or so and started reading. And sometime between then and bedtime, snuck it up to hide under his pillow. I found it right off, thankfully as if it fell off hte bed in the night it would likely have been damaged. (we have wood floors) I expressed my disappointment in his choice. Told him if he was worried something would happen to it that we could find a place to put it where he would be sure it was safe. He wasn't worried about it, didn't feel concern of someone else touching it. OK then.

Last night I find in his shorts pockets a bunch of small items that belong to others, including a pocket knife that Kirsty keeps in the glove box of her car for emergencies. Rob's job is to clean the van every Saturday so obviously that is how he came by it. I was way less calm about finding that. Not that i particularly worry about a 13 year old and a pocket knife. I was a girl scout and had one. But a) he could mess with it around the little kids which would be bad and b) if he was found with it in certain public venues it would be automatically that weapon/threat issue. And it is someone else's pocket knife. Taking others belongings is huge to me.

So now I have my thinking cap on as to how best to handle this. My guess is he is going to spend a lot of time helping me out this weekend.

OK, you all remember my issues with posting pictures, right? I am impaired. I suffer from technology issues and there is likely little hope that I will improve much! So you have to start at the bottom picture for the retrospective. That was a shot of Rob hiking in March of 06. I have earlier pictures but 06 was when digital camera joined our home. Beloved family member, that digital camera. But I am allowing my addled brain to wander. . . The next picture above that was March of 07. Rob is in our kitchen smiling because he is not doing school work but having his picture taken! Seriously. The kid loves having his picture taken. March of 08 is the spiffy guy with the white collar. It was cropped out of the family Easter photo of that year. Don't ask me what happened in March of 09 that caused us to be devoid of Robbie pictures but apparently we are. Instead, for your viewing pleasure, an April 09 picture. Wearing his Nike shirt. Which he will wear till it is threadbare because, well, it is a NIKE shirt! LOL I told him tonite when I tucked him in that this was his last night as a 12 year old. Tomorrow he is officially a teen ager. He smiled.