A Rare Day

It’s a gorgeous day outside, sunny, warm, little wind, a rare treat for the first of November.

Even more rare was my urge to clean the kitchen, so I’ve been missing out on the beautiful weather to accomplish this:

Those of you who are perfectionists are probably wondering why there are still cobwebs, a back tag hanging above the sink, dirt chunks on the floor, a hole under the counter where a dishwasher should be and why we still have a counter that was chewed on by a certain Great Dane puppy many years ago.

Those of you who saw my house yesterday probably fell down in shock at the expanse of white counter top visible, pre-chewed or not!

I always run into a problem when I do a major clean, there are just some things there are no good spots for.

The binos, they live next to the microwave. Do we need 3 pairs there? No. Do I have any other place to put them? No.

The oatmeal doesn’t fit in any of the cupboards so it stays on the counter along with the deep fryer.

And then there is the bowl of miscellaneous small items. Screws from the dove cage the girls ripped out that haven’t gotten fixed, tiny bits of hardware for the ice maker water line, and the cat skull that I re-found behind the microwave.

Sometimes my life makes me wonder.

Just as I was beginning to think it was completely ridiculous that I had a cat skull hiding behind the microwave  Ivy saw the skull again and said, “MOM that’s really cool!  Is that a cat skull?”

Then the two of us had a conversation about what cats eat, (Eyes in front likes to hunt.) what holds teeth in, why skulls are hard and if Granny would like to see it.

Now I’m no longer wondering, we may have some unorthodox adornments in our house but it’s worth it!

(If you are wondering where the skull came from no need to worry it wasn’t a family pet, it was the remains of the cat in Confessions Of A Lawn Hater.)

Oh The Irony

Last year I posted about my hatred of Halloween.

This year I’ve had close to 600 views of my “Halloween Hater” post from people searching for pumpkin carving patterns.

Oh the irony…

This year I still hate Halloween.

First of all I hate Halloween because I can still never spell it right on the first try.

Secondly I hate it this year because I’ve completely lost my voice today.

Here is what I can report about being voiceless:

-Screamfree parenting is one thing… parenting in whispers and hand signals is too much.

-Puppies do not stop chewing on toys when you whistle, clap or stomp at them across the house.

-Small children do not stop coloring on your new drywall that got installed YESTERDAY when you whistle, clap or stomp at them across the house.

-“They” say that if you talk quite others around you will lower their voice to match yours.

-“They” lie.

Lost voice aside, other preparations for my least favorite holiday are going…… well they are going.

A few weeks ago we made some fun lanterns for the table.

This weekend we did some pumpkin carving.

Now with the big day finally here there are costume wars going on.  Decisions made in the last weeks are suddenly not OK and fights are cropping up. Meanwhile I try to whisper alternatives and peace making strategies and, in a moment of something decidedly not screamfree parenting even without a voice, threaten to cancel trick or treating for my children altogether.

Because if we are all being honest, I’m only in it to steal their candy and I bet I could get a big bag on sale at Wal-Mart tomorrow for at lot less trouble!

Right On Schedule

Almost a year ago I wrote about Ivy and the “Art Guilt” I was suffering from.  The problem resolved itself rather well in the last year. Ivy stopped drawing people, got into coloring books (which no matter how nicely she colors I have no problem getting rid of after a few days) and when she makes crafts at the library story time she likes to give them away to friends – perfect.

Today I’m worried the problem may be returning, she’s back to people, and now they have accessories.

Look: it’s me, with a river, grass, two anklets, a necklace, a bracelet and a pretend Ivy swimming in the river.

What do you think another year and I’ll get pants?

Now if you’ll recall my plan for last years art work was, “…go put them some place stupid, lose them, forget about them and probably find them years in the future having been eaten by mice. ”  When I went to add this picture to the others I discovered I’m right on schedule… I’ve lost them.

“Meself”

There comes a point around age two when kids want to do it all their selves, or in Clara’s case “meself”. 

And we are there, oh boy, are we ever there.

Clara was a bit under the weather yesterday. So after she helped me make lunch by pouring the ingredients in “meself” we went up stairs to read books which she picked out “meself.” After books it was time for her nap and since she was feeling rotten I spent a little extra time snuggling with her and rubbing her back. All of a sudden she rolled over and said “No Mom, rub back meself.” and proceeded to try to rub her own back. I asked if she was sure that’s what she wanted to do. She assured me that it was and very seriously informed me that “Mayme later Mom” I could rub her back again.

No doubt about it my little girl is two, oh boy is she ever…

A Long Time Ago…

… in a galaxy far, far away…

No really,  it was actually just in Stevens Point Wisconsin and it wasn’t that long ago.

My husband, who at the time was nothing more than the guy with the crazy hair and the cute smile…

…that I’d have liked to have been dating but wasn’t yet, was swimming really, really fast.  Fast enough that even though, we weren’t dating yet I have never been allowed to live down the fact that I did not attend the national meet that year to watch his 400 medley relay win for the second year in a row re-breaking their own national record.

When you factor in the other fantastic swimming (and diving) that went on that year that earned their team of six men fourth place overall…

…well it doesn’t seem to matter that nothing more than a bit of pool side flirting had gone on between us yet, I’m in trouble for life.

This last weekend we were again in Stevens Point joined by many family and friends to watch John and his fellow relay members get inducted into the Stevens Point Athletic Hall of Fame.  It was pretty awesome, big banquet, video presentation for each inductee, a chocolate cake on every table, the works. At the end of the night he walked out with a gigantic smile on his face, and this to hang on his wall…

Photo enlarged to show detail.

In actuality the big fancy award went to the coach since they were a team and they each got… well, something to take home, but that not the point. The point is they were an awesome relay of guys, it was great to see everyone for the weekend and even better to see them get to stand up, relive a bit of the “glory days” and get recognized for what they had done.  The other notable point is that after a weekend of fun with old friends (which followed the previous weekends Alumni meet with even more old friends) I think we need at least another week to recover!!!

Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth

I hate Halloween.

I’ve mentioned this before here but hate it or not it’s coming up and as with all holidays the library has kept us on track with their rack of seasonal/holiday appropriate books. Normally I love the seasonal rack, but these are Halloween books, and I hate Halloween, I also hate Clifford. I really don’t want to read about Clifford and Halloween in the same book.

Ivy does.

It’s a problem.

When I saw that Jon Muth who wrote Zen Shorts had a Halloween book out I pounced on it. I was a little apprehensive since it did involve the word “ghost” but there was no big red dog or ugly drippy monsters on the cover so I thought it was worth a try. I’d like to say it was just as wonderful as Zen Shorts but I can’t get my Halloween hating completely out of my system so I will just say that it is the only Halloween book that I have ever enjoyed.

The illustrations were again beautiful.  And the story.. I’m not even sure what to say, it was a ghost story, sort of, and it was a zen-like-make-you-think-story, and once again Ivy enjoyed it more than I ever would have guessed she would have.

Would I recommend it? Yes indeed! Please replace a certain large red dog with a giant panda named Stillwater, I promise life will get better.

Happy Birthday Sarah

Today is my friend Sarah’s birthday.

Therefore I’d like to take the opportunity to tell you all that she’s pretty darn cool.

How cool? So cool that we have managed to remain friends for twenty three years.  Twenty three years that have not always been easy years to keep a friendship going, but we have.  Over the years the obstacles have changed but we’ve still manged to be there for each other the whole way through.

In second grade Sarah moved to Pewaukee and ended up in my class. It didn’t take long before we became friends and up until fourth grade life was easy. Our main challenge to overcome was whether or not Sarah had vacuumed yet  and if she was grounded or not. Sarah was grounded a lot.  For a girl that seemed pretty good, she must have been a terror behind closed doors.

In fourth grade she and another friend decided they hated me. You would think this was a large obstacle, but due to a fortuitous combination of my being stubborn, unable to take a hint, and my lack of other friends, I hung in there and we came out the other end friends again.

From fourth grade on to high school my swimming schedule threw a monkey wrench in things. Swimming a half hour away from home every night, plus practice and/or meets on weekends kept me busy in the pool.  Fortunately Sarah still had a lot of vacuuming (amongst other activities) to keep her busy and we manged to stay fast friends.

Then things got tricky. In the summer between sophomore and junior year of high school Sarah and her family moved to Canada. Many tears later, chat rooms were discovered and we spent hours keeping in touch while jumping around rooms to avoid anyone who might intrude on our conversations. I attribute my typing speed and abilities completely to those years, unfortunately for my spelling,  Sarah was a champ at  figuring out my interesting words. To this day it’s a good thing that I have spell check, and a husband to tell my how to spell obstacle when all spell check can come up with for my typed word is obstetrics.

Sarah moved back to Wisconsin in college and joined me at UW-Stevens Point – it was a good time.  We lived together for two straight years with only one spat the entire time (don’t move my bed, it turns out I hate that) and had more fun than is prudent to mention on a blog my family reads. By the end of college we were closer than ever and husbands were on the way.

Turns out husbands are no big deal. They are understanding of our friendship, get along great and suddenly we had four people for card games. If ever we needed some girl time we could always easily get rid of the boys by waving a video game in front of them.

Not too long after the husbands became official we each had a kid and only two months apart we pretty much entered into motherhood together.  While it was harder to chat and visit with two kids around other than one very memorable and exhausting trip where Ivy learned that if she yelled “MINE” it would cause Natalie to freak out, they have gotten along remarkably well.

But, now there are more, our second kids are four months apart, and Sarah’s third trails them by a bit over a year. Now when we get together our weekend seems to consist solely of feeding kids, breaking up fights,  putting them to sleep, and waiting for them to wake back up while trying not to drown in a sea of toys.  Once this summer someone asked when we were all visiting together if Sarah and I had fun… Umm yeah… Wait was Sarah there? Yeah I think we had fun, I don’t know I have to call her later and talk so I can find out…

Things aren’t as easy as they used to be.  I continue to have trouble getting away from the animals in the summer while Sarah works during the school year.  We may spend quite a bit more time wondering if the weekend we just spent together was “fun” or exhausting and as the kids grow we will continue to cross our fingers they’ll remain friends, or at least friendly. In the meantime we’ll continue to have phone conversations squashed in between the rest of life, and be thankful for free mobile to mobile minutes.

While I’m always sad when we can’t spend a birthday or other important event together, it’s good to be able to look back at a lifetime of friendship and know that this challenging time will also pass.  Lately we’ve been talking of a husband-less/kid-less trip when we turn forty.  And who knows, one day we’ll probably end up sharing a room at an old folks home.  One day we’ll be celebrating our birthdays together again even if we are no longer sure how old we are!

Happy Birthday Sarah!