Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We started out our day bright and early with a 5k run at the lakefront. Actually, I ran with a friend, and the rest of the family cheered me on (thank you SO MUCH dear family for your support, despite the cold weather, wind, and early wake up on a holiday).

I had a great time and then we got to go home, warm up and take a nap before the real party began - Thanksgiving with the Fortiers. As always, this was a great event with family enjoying good food and conversation.

 

Bonus - Later that week we hung out with the Fortier Moving Crew and managed to move everything from Union Grove back to Racine all in ONE DAY! Lots of trips back and forth, but we got it DONE!

 

 

Art in Action

These kids of mine, I don't know where they get their ideas but its incredible to watch what sprouts out of their creativity.

Shelly lost a tooth at school and brought it home in a little plastic box shaped like a tooth. The Tooth Fairy seems to be always running behind at our house, she didn't pick up Shelly's tooth the first night. Shelly spent a long time writing a note and asking me how to spell things. (Mom, how do you spell tooth? How do you spell please?) This all resulted in a beautiful note not from Shelly, but from Shelly's tooth.

Of course the Tooth Fairy could not ignore this plea, and made an exception to the rule, the rule of trading teeth for money.

Shelly, and Summer too, were so VERY excited when Shelly discovered on her pillow the note with Summer still attached, the new note from Ms. Fairy, and money! Shelly came running to me with her treasures and explained the whole thing. She ran to Dad to read Ms. Fairy's note to him. And then... Then Shelly says, "I wonder if I could be pen pals with the Tooth Fairy." I guess we'll have to wait and see how that plays out.

While Shelly was writing her note to Ms. Fairy, Elijah caught the creativity bug and asked if he could paint. He brought out the water colors and set to work. He brought his finished painting to me and asked me if I knew what it said. "I love you like the rainbow," I read to him. "Yets!" He said to me, very pleased that I could read it.

He came back with another and read it to me, "I love Mom and Dad and everybody in this world that I know."

Elijah sings this song in a quiet voice, I can barely hear him but he persists, the song long and drawn out, sweet and telling. "I love mom and dad... I like you... I want to go to the beach.... I really want to go on a train, oh I really want to go on a train, to the, to the beach...."

And while we're talking about E, I had the best conversation with him the other day. We recently received some postcards from Aunt Niecy in sunny Florida. I suggested to E that he send one of his paintings to his cousin Lulu and he frowned a little. He didn't think that was such a good idea. She's pretty little, and what if she ruins it? He started to dictate a letter to me in his most serious, grown-up voice. "Dear Yuyu. Here is a painting I made, but just don't yune (ruin) it." I told him I didn't think she'd ruin it on purpose, but he still wasn't sure about sharing his art with her. "You could send it to Nana," I suggested. He brightened up, "Yeah, cause her don't have babies!" This would guarantee that it wouldn't get ruined. "No, but she used to have babies. Do you know who her babies were?" This completely puzzled him, of course, and then I said, "Grandpa Craig used to be Nana's baby." His eyes grew wide, "That bampa is MY bampa!" I love those moments when the kids make connections and you can see the light go on in their eyes as they suddenly understand something new that wasn't there before.

Catching My Breath

First we had a great summer vacation full of camps and visits to Bampa and Mamaw's house (aka HC aka Camp Snoopy). Then we had the BEST VACATION EVER!!! (Which I didn't write about because next...) Then SCHOOL STARTED!!!

It has been a whirlwind of activities, rushing to catch the bus, drop E off at school, drop Arch off, do it all in reverse a few hours later when they come home. Then off to BALLET, SCOUTS, SWIM LESSONS, slow down! Did I mention the homework, cleaning bedrooms, laundry, homework, more ballet (that's TWICE a week), and don't forget bike riding, playing outside and homework. And the extra field trips ("Mom will you chapperone?"), parties ("Mom will you help?")...

There is no break. Until yesterday, when I got so sick I could barely think and finally called it quits. I had a meltdown, begged for help and went back to bed. David stepped in and got the kids to school and E to HC and me to the doctor. Strep throat! I've never had that before and hope I never have to deal with it again. And most of all, I hope my kids don't catch it because it is AWFUL!

This is life with a family, there is no actual break, life just keeps swirling on and when Mom is sick then someone else has to step in to start paddling the boat or it will crash on the rocks. Or something. Anyway, thanks family (husband, grandparents) for picking up the slack. Now, back to work!