Don't ever let anyone tell you that all these electronics are ruining our kids. Sometimes they play together nicely, even when they're playing on their tablets. See?
Archer climbed into the recycling bin, and David told the other two that this is what happens when kids turn 13. We recycle them. Then we get a new one. That's what happened to the other kids. Eli only believed it for a moment, asking us, "What other kids?" Then he moved on to demolishing a cardboard box with a plastic bat.
On another day, David and I sat in the van and watched as Eli went after a box with this giant bat. He had no regard for anyone watching, he was simply performing a job. He crashed his bat into that box over and over, relentless. Finally, after 10 or 15 minutes, the whole thing was reduced to flat chunks of cardboard on the floor. He casually put the bat away, looked at his work, brushed his hands off against each other, as if to say, "Job well done." Ever wish you could get into the mind of a six year old? What makes him tick? He didn't look back at us, just turned and walked into the house.
Finally the promised WARM WEATHER has arrived. Here in Wonderful WI you just never know when the next beautiful day will come, so I dragged the kids out to the woods with me.
All went well. There were lots of sticks thrown into the water, lots of mud mostly avoided. We spotted a bunch of frogs and one turtle (the turtle seemed maybe like he was resting in peace?). There was a debate about whether or not Archer is a Turtleini expert. You can imagine.
Children + sticks = sword fights, fort building aspirations, stick prodding = Mom gets annoyed and we move on to the next location.
After enough traipsing around and checking out the wildlife we reached the near breaking point and got out of there just in time.
I'm looking forward to more great hikes in the woods in the months to come. Now cross your fingers that we can have another day or two of decent weather, before the next snowstorm!
P.S. Super secret ulterior motive. I recently started feeling nostalgic for my own childhood experiences of exploring pastures and woods for hours on end with my siblings. I was wishing I could take my children to those places from my childhood. But I can't re-create those exact same moments for them. I was wallowing in this realization, but this is no way to move forward into the future, clinging to something that's gone. So instead, I can give my children these little moments of exploring what we do have, the things around us. And that starts only a couple miles from home in the beautiful nature preserve with miles of trails and countless birds and bugs to discover. And we got a good start on that today.
Scouting For Food bag handout day, we had to call in reinforcements (cousins) to help get the job done. Thanks Cuz!
Eli's car was one of the top 3 in his Pack so he was able to compete in the District Derby. Also, our family ran the event. We've done this before so it was all routine and there weren't too many big surprises.
Well, there was one big surprise. There was a promise made to the competitors that there would be a Blue Angel fly-by before the racing commenced.
Thanks to the Angels (and the boys who will not be named for making this possible!).
Eli registers his car.
Shelly and friend Claire run the concession table, selling hot dogs, popcorn, candy and beverages.
David did a fantastic job of coordinating everything and the whole event went off without a hitch. The boys in Archer's Troop were key in keeping everything running smoothly. Another day of great memories for all involved!
Shelly and some classmates participated in Battle of the Books.
A list of 100 books (maybe less, but still, the list seemed really long).
Three teammates.
Lots and lots of trivia questions.
Shelly's team was at a slight disadvantage because one of their teammates was unable to participate, so the remaining teammates had to pick up the slack and read even more books.
They faced off against the other teams at the public library one day after school and unflinchingly provided the book titles and authors to every character that was named, every plot turn that was listed. The parents, grandparents, community sat back and marvelled at the teams' skill and confidence.
Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to take us out to dinner after the competition, thanks for the great afternoon! :)
Sometimes a girl just needs a little time-out from life, family, the household chores and noise and everything. So today, the girls (Shelly and I) bailed on everything else and found ourselves at B&N. With some tea, books, and colored pencils.
We spent a couple hours just enjoying the peace and quiet. We talked a little, we colored a little. We just relaxed and let everything move on around us while we forgot about the chores at home and the stresses of the upcoming week. And then we came back home and dove back into our lives. A little refreshed, and looking forward to the next time-out. Maybe soon. Hopefully not too far away.
Shelly and I were talking one night and she started staring at my face. Eventually she said something about my eyebrows and how she wanted to touch them because they looked fuzzy (not really a great compliment, is it?). Then she wanted to stroke my nose. She actually just wanted to be petting my face, I guess? I told her it's because she doesn't have a cat. And that started this.
Shelly, we can't have a cat or a dog because I can barely keep up with feeding the three kids in this house and there's just no way I can manage more living things. She understood and nodded.
Shelly, in some families the kids have Small Rodent [gerbil, guinea pig, hamster, chinchilla, rabbit] and the kids play with it and clean up after it and feed it but that just doesn't work for us. She told me about some friends who have Small Rodent and those kids take turns with their siblings to feed and clean cages etc. etc.
Shelly, here's the problem with Small Rodent. At some point, Small Rodent will escape its home and roam around where we can't find it, and you'll come to me crying that you can't find Small Rodent. Is it in your room? You don't know? Was the door closed when it disappeared? You think so? So maybe Small Rodent is somewhere in your room under all your stuff, or maybe Small Rodent is out in the house somewhere else? You're sad and Mom is annoyed and Dad says everything will be ok. And then it's the middle of the night and Mom gets up to go to the bathroom and Small Rodent scurries across her path and Mom freaks out and then everyone wakes up and freaks out and somehow even though Mom saw Small Rodent scurrying around, Small Rodent has now disappeared again and what if it's in her bed? And no one sleeps until Small Rodent has been rooted out of whatever den it is creating in Mom's bed and evicted from the F5 household, with many tears from all involved. And that is why we cannot have Small Rodent, no matter how much it teaches kids "responsibility" and "maturity."
The Cat, aka The Dad (he doesn't even like cats, this whole analogy might not work...) is away for six days. I said to David, what will I do without you? He said, what you always do. Meaning, our schedule rolls on, school, work, homework, laundry, bickering, laughing, did I miss anything? I told the kids that Dad is the one who reminds me to be nice to them, and without him around, who knows what's going to happen. Maybe pizza for dinner every night. (For real. I really thought about that. Except I don't even like pizza that much, so maybe not. Maybe ramen noodles instead.)
Anyway. On my way home from work I saw approximately 147 people out walking their dogs because it was a balmy 43. I was inspired to get outside and told the kids they had to go for a walk with me. They agreed, on the condition that they would get shamrock shakes afterwards. We proceeded on our 0.8 mile walk and Eli wiped out only three times. We had dinner, went grocery shopping, found a new turtle friend (his name is Fasty because, um, he can jump really high?) and the kids were thrilled when we FINALLY picked up their shakes. Bonus - We listened to Queen on the ride home. Awe. Some.
We played a lot tonight. We fooled around and there was almost no crying and we all just spent a couple hours being silly. Everybody said lots of funny stuff and I remember almost none of it. Shelly told a story about how her class got to use tablets in the library at school today, and Mr. Librarian was very protective of these devices and asked everyone to be extra careful. "They're my babies, please be very gentle with them." Class Comedian jumps in and asks, "Did you marry a flatscreen TV?" Mr. Librarian worked very hard to hide the smile on his face but all the kids knew that he thought it was funny too.
Shelly and Elijah and I were sitting on the couch and Shelly decided she wanted to watch TV and told Little Brother to go get the remote. He immediately got the remote and brought it to her and then, without any judgement, just asked the question. "Shelly, are you just lazy or what?" Can you hear it? The honesty and the curiosity in his voice? Shelly, without missing a beat, launches into a little speech about humans and how they're just naturally lazy and that's just how people are and yes, she's lazy. Can you hear the matter of fact justification in her voice? And as she goes on, he curls into the corner of the couch and covers his face with a pillow and I hear him say, sadly now, disappointed in his sister's answer, "I just don't think that's how it should be." Hugs all around for everyone. And quit being lazy!
The Cat, The Dad, called to let us know he made it to LAX and he had a few spare minutes to chat with us before he had to head off for work stuff. I guess we're all keeping busy without each other, but I'm definitely counting down the days till the cat is home again.
