Forced Family Fun

On Saturday I had the need for some forced family fun with my two teenagers who are weeks away from leaving for college.  So we go bowling.  In the car on the way to the bowling alley it is pretty much silent, so I play some music.  Nothing.  Then we get to the bowling alley and get settled and J says, "Do they have food here?"  That's his focus in life.  Thank the lord they have food and he starts ordering.  We start bowling.  We finish the game in about 26 minutes.  I get 5 strikes and have to yell, "Hey kids - I got a strike!" to get them out of their teenage stupor.  M sashays up to the foul line and lets go of the ball mid air.  There is a loud crash the ball teeters down the alley - usually going directly towards a gutter.  Then she sashays back sullenly and sits down.  She starts chewing her hair.  J on the other hand throws the ball the rock star way - you know, you don't put your fingers into the holes, you just sort of hold the ball in the palm of your hand and use your wrist to give it a good spin.  It went fast, very fast, banging hard into the gutter most frames.  So I kicked butt but neither of them really noticed.  I bowl about once a year and it's always with them.  So we get home and M marches to her room and J goes to the basement.  About an hour later they emerge.  M is light hearted for some reason and walks over to me and says, "Wasn't that the crappiest family fun time ever?"  We all laugh and I ask them why it went the way it did.  Neither of them could tell me put they found it entirely out of character.  I wonder how many strikes I'll get next year.

Peace

Kids and Teaching

Look at the sweetness of these boys.  We are building a space shuttle and International Space Station out of plastic, tape, and some air pushed into it with a fan.  The ISS was looking sort of sad so the four of us did some sleuthing and fixed the trouble.  We just needed more tape and some patience.  These boys were so proud of their work.  We sat back and watch the ISS come to life.  Teaching is so exhilarating.  It is indescribable.  Sometimes I feel guilty about it because the feeling I get after a day with boys like this is so similar to the feeling I get after I eat an entire carton of Haagen Daz.  Pure joy.

The Town Where I Live

Do you ever think about where you live?  I love where I live but I know I don't appreciate it enough.  One day last week I rode to the falls where I spent some time looking at this.  I live 10 minutes from this.  These falls are falling all the time - right now the water is running over the rocks and crashing down to the creek below.  I can reach back to that moment - to the beauty of what is there now anytime.  It is there for me always.  Every summer I drive up north with my two kids and we marvel at what beauty exists in our state.  We are quiet as we drive through rock tunnels and hills that end in views that bring tears to our eyes.  There is one point in our drive when the lake ahead of us looks like it is above us - hanging in the sky in front of us.  It is at that moment that we are together loving the world.  Plus - no bugs in the car.

The Daughter

She got new glasses today.  One thing I love about M (there are many) is that she doesn't give a hoot what others think about her.  These glasses are straight out of 1981 and they are darling and so is she.  She is often trying to explain to me the pain of not being able to see.  She has worn contacts for about 6 years or so and I'm always on her case about wearing them to bed (which is bad for her eyes!).  And she says that the reason she wears them to bed is that she is blind without them, so we got her glasses to ease the bed time blindness.  The other thing I love about M is her independence and willingness to figure stuff out.  She always finds a job, gets her classes changed, talks to her counselor with little or no help from me.  Sometimes I have to remind myself she's really just a kid and she might want to feel little for a while longer.  Notice the tilt of the head.  She's got it down.  M recently got a picture of her grandmother from about 55 years ago and she had the exact same tilt - even in the same direction.  We're all the same.

The Car Accident

The Sunday after school was out, Sally Jo crashed into me.  She was turning right which is generally allowed unless there is a car on your right already.  She bashed into me and then seemed kind of peeved.  I practiced my calm breathing and then imagined stabbing her.  It worked!  After lots of phone calls and a week of driving a PT Cruiser rental (TRUE!) - I got my car back all shiny smooth and clean.  Sally Jo's insurance coughed it up.  

The thing that bothered me the most was the moment right after the impact.  It was one of those things that was obviously the fault of the "other" and I looked over at her thinking she would be looking all alarmed and apologetic but instead she was looking angry and ticked off.  Well, Sally Jo, you were in the wrong and I have my sweet little car back.  My only pain was driving the PT Cruiser for a week.  Do people actually buy those cars off the lot?  It's like driving a joke for a car.

Salad

Summer Time Drying

Sometimes the clothes get a little crunchy in the sun but it's better than running the dryer when it's 90.

My Garden!

Well, I'm trying very hard to upload a current photo of my vegetable garden. It is looking beautiful. I have enjoyed several salads (to cancel out the cupcakes) and lots of pesto. The tomatoes are just starting to form. The plants seem heavy so I'll have to reinforce them with some stakes. So I was getting mad about this upload business and said to myself "crap!" I really like that word. I don't consider it a curse word but I know that many people do consider it a curse word. When I say it to students they are often taken aback. I think it is funny because I pretty much never use the other real bad words. Get over it for crap's sake. I wish I could show you my garden picture but I'm getting some error message. Crap.

Show and Tell

So I'm teaching summer school this year half time. It was hard to decide to do it. I've often said that I'm a better teacher because I've never taught summer school. Usually, I feel like I need the break but this year is different because I had a lighter student load this past year and the summer school project we're doing isn't the usual paper and pencil kind of summer school. We're building a 1/4 scale model of the space shuttle and international space station out of plastic and gobs of duct tape. Today N, a fifth grader asked me several times if I wanted to see her frog. I said, "Is it real?" And she said yes and then started digging in her purse. She spent a few minutes digging and I thought "There is no way she has a real frog and if she does it's probably dead by now" - what with all the digging in the purse. She couldn't find it. About 20 minutes later I saw the frog hopping along minding its own business. So I picked it and asked N to take it outside to live. A few minutes later a different student found an ant and smashed it to death with her foot.

Boys Like Farting

Is there anything cuter than this boy working hard to make a fart on his arm? This is my son, J, at his "fishing" class. I stopped by on my bike and found him surrounded by all his little students who were working hard to make the best farting noise. J announced to the kids, "hey, look it's my mom!" and you would have thought I was Joe Maurer's mom. They looked at me with wonder and amazement and eagerly shared their farts with me. Why do boys like farting, making farting noises and talking about farts so much?

Work Is Good

Today was summer school training.  It is thrilling to teach.  I love it.  I love getting ready, planning, getting nervous, wondering if the kids will like me, hoping they are not too bored, knowing they won't laugh at my jokes.  Just remember that the first day of school your teacher is always just as nervous (or more so) than you are.  Doesn't that make you feel better?  

We are building a 1/4 scale model of the space shuttle and international space station.  I hope to post pictures as we go.  Stay tuned.

Remember When We Were Young?

Okay, so at the cabin for the fourth of J we got this giant water trampoline. On the instructions it said, "Don't jump on this". What the?! Then we had about an hour long discussion about how to get it into water at exactly the right depth and not too close to the neighbor's docks and stuff. Finally G and J just got into the boat and towed it out there. We wanted J to get on top of it and drop the anchor but as you can see, it didn't really go all that smooth. I found it to be great entertainment. Anyway, it got into the water at a fine depth. The kids swam out to it and realized it was the cheap version of the real water trampoline that our neighbors had so they jumped off and swam over to the neighbors trampoline and had a real good time. M and M sprawled out on the beach and read trashy magazines. It was a great old time.

Good Nature, Bad Nature

We were at the cabin for the fourth, the siblings and our teenagers. J, the 6' 7" nephew noticed this lovely pink and yellow moth on the entryway into the cabin. It was shockingly fluorescent. When did nature get so high tech? I mean, it was actually cartoonish in its beauty. Then we saw this nasty spider in the tub. I know it is difficult to tell the size of this spider, but its body was the side of a quarter - not including the legs. Yuckorama! M, my 19 year-old niece took care of it with the back of a sandal. There was no screaming just a little surprise at the number of whacks it took to take it down. Happy fourth!

Energy Source

Cupcakes are the answer to our energy problems. Try eating one cupcake each day and see what happens. At the very least your piss poor attitude will improve. Come on, give it a try.

July 2

Today I got to hold this sweet baby R. He belongs to my friend B. B is a great mom and filled with joy over motherhood and her new boy. I loved holding him. He is small and compact and as he fell asleep I remembered the sweetness of my own kids. Thank you for that B!
This evening I took a walk around the local lake with my sister M. We talked about our kids and our worries and laughed about some old times. She always has good stories to tell and advice to give. I had no cake today, but I did have some chocolate ice cream with whipped cream. It is by no means a substitute for cake, but delicious none the less.

July 1 - It's Summer!

Remember those youthful days when you went to your summer job during the day, came home and napped, and then went out with friends until the wee hours? Well, that's the life of my kids this summer. This is J - going to work. He comes home and watches TV and naps and then gets up to party. The kids come home late and as my friend put it recently, "I'm having a hard time holding down a fulltime job with the kids' party schedule!" It's true. I pray that they are safe and making good choices. Before they leave the house I remind them to not drink, not smoke pot, and abstain from sex hoping that they might just take that extra moment to think before they act and make the smart choice.