Last week, I mentioned that the kids narrowly escaped being Timbered by a tree they had been climbing mere minutes before. This week, I am here to say that there is no great loss without some small gain. While the kids no longer have the climbing tree in all its majesty, they do now have a jungle to explore.
The evening of the next day, the tornado sirens started going off around 9:30 p.m., so we all headed to the basement to hunker down for a while. It was kind of annoying, since I had to get Oey out of bed, and it turned out to be just a thunderstorm warning. But it was good for me to have a kind of trial run for future siren incidents: I realized I need to stock our basement room with lanterns, flashlights and stuff to occupy the kids with. Luckily, I had just cleaned out a closet earlier in the day and set a box of Playdoh in there while I looked for a new place for it to call home. The Playdoh turned out to be a huge hit, and the kids just created masterpieces while Todd read Lord of the Rings to them, and the power never went out, so it turned out to be a pretty luxurious tornado drill. But I should definitely look into prepping that space a little better for any future time in the bunker. If I learned anything from the Wizard of Oz, it's that you don't mess around with tornadoes in Kansas. (Also, it's good practice to not let your dog bite a witch, or you could end up spiraling into all kinds of avoidable chaos, but that lesson seems less applicable here.)
On Monday, the younger-than-Atticus, older-than-Ophelia kids started swimming lessons. They are loving it. The first day held a little drama, as Penelope didn't feel well, the little girls didn't want to go to their classes, and Ophelia is starting to get wise that any time we show up at the pool she just ends up having to sit there forever, so she started to rebel. Luckily, Todd had the day off work for the long holiday weekend or I'm not sure how I would have gotten everyone where they needed to be.
Rocco and Callista spontaneously held hands all the way from the van to the pool. I love them so much.
This session is a little different than Atticus' session. First, we have to get up much earlier in the morning to get there on time. You know I am not an early riser, so the loss of sleep has done a number on me. Second, we are there for two lesson slots - the younger four swim for half an hour, then Penelope and Finneas swim for half an hour, with a ten minute break between. Which means Oey is in the stroller for over an hour, and after the little kids get out of the water, they sit shivering for forty minutes before we can go home and change into dry clothes. But all things considered, they've been pretty good sports.
They spend their post-swim time bundled up and blue.
Gosh, how I wish I hadn't blinked in this photo. But oh well - it's still the best, so I'm keeping it.
Oey was OVER. IT. We have since started leaving her and Atticus at home with Todd while the others swim. Not sure if she's any less fussy at home, but she's at least not fussy in public. I think everyone, including her, is happier this way.
Monday after heading home to change, Todd surprised the kids with a trip to the fireworks tent. We picked out a few small things, not knowing what level of tolerance our neighborhood would have for anything more than that. (We should have known - our whole town is full of active and retired military personnel; Fourth of July is still happening in these parts even as I type this.) Next year we'll go bigger.
On Tuesday, Todd helped me at swimming lessons again since he was still off work. Then we picked up our milk after lessons so that we could be home at dinner time to grill out. I made brats from a pig that was raised by a friend's dad, cheese I made that day from Amish milk, zucchini we found under a "free" sign by a farmhouse on the way to get the milk that morning, and potatoes. Oh, and some of the pickles I fermented the previous week from the cucumbers and dill I got from the neighbor. It was one of those meals that I feel really excited by - not because it was fancy or anything, but because I knew where almost everything came from. I don't know why that makes a meal feel so special to me, but it does. I love that feeling. So I even put a tablecloth out to celebrate.
The boys busted out their airsoft guns and shot at homemade targets in the yard while I grilled. What a way to celebrate Independence Day. Eat your heart out, England.
After dinner, we lit off smoke bombs and played with sparklers and called it a night.
The smoke bombs made for a fun opportunity to pretend they were running a military operation. These guns were fashioned from Legos. Boys are boys and I'm here for it.
The rest of the week has kept us busy. I did the menu planning and grocery shopping for the month. (I'm trying out a new system where I only shop once every four weeks. I don't love it, but it's possible it could save money in the long term. I'm giving it a test run through next summer to see how it goes. The other advantage it offers is that, since I have to cancel school on grocery mornings, during the school year this should give me more time at home to tackle our work.) Atticus had mowing jobs, so I drove him where he needed to be. I finished up last year's portfolios, bought our school supplies, got everything organized for our lab sciences next year, and continued chipping away at planning and printing the rest of next year's work.
Today, our next door neighbors from our Columbia house are coming to visit for the day! So we have another full day ahead.
Life is full of good things right now, but gosh I feel mortal. Learning to juggle lots of good things without wearing out is work that makes me more fit for eternity. I'm glad it's such enjoyable work.
In Oey news, she is talking more! She's saying Mama, Dada, Sissy (Lissy), bye bye, hi, hello, and baby. Which are wonderful to hear, not only because her voice is so sweet and I'm glad she's finally getting chattier, but also because it's a welcome break from hearing her say only "Hey!" "Ow!" and "Stop!" for so long.
And that was it for our week! I'm headed into the weekend with plans to clean out the van, and spend most of my free time napping. It should be a good time.
We still can't figure out the problem with our dishwasher, and I don't want to spend money on a new one until next tax return season, so it looks like a lot of handwashing is in our future. The kids are logging plenty of practice hours, and look pretty cheerful about it when asked to smile for the camera, so I feel like we're doing okay with the situation, all things considered.
Happy weekend, folks!
1 comment :
"Learning to juggle lots of good things without wearing out is work that makes me more fit for eternity." amen. well said.
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