New and Improved

Today I picked up my first real pair of glasses.  I've been using reading glasses since I was 22.  Over the last couple of years I could tell my vision was getting worse.  I've always been proud of my super human, better than 20/20 distance vision.  However, recently I've been having trouble reading road signs.  The eye doctor warned me about 2 years ago that I should start thinking about getting progressives.

Last year I went to Costco to get my vision tested.  It was a joke.  Tired of driving to Ballard (I liked my eye doctor there), I enlisted the help of Facebook to find a new eye doctor.  Multiple people suggested the same place, so I went with it.  The fact that it is next door to both a brewery/taproom and a gelato place may or may not have been a deciding factor.

The doctor was able to figure out what was going on with my vision.  I have not lost my super human distance vision.  What I did lose was my ability to move between near and far.  The result was I was having trouble refocusing and ending my days with headaches. 

The doctor gave me a cute little assistant to help me pick out glasses.  I told him I wanted sexy Tina Fey/librarian.  The glasses needed to have some flex to them.  I liked the rubbery frames of my readers.  My assistant did an excellent job of choosing a variety of glasses I might like.  It was maybe a little too fun.  I nixed transition lenses.

Charlotte 2.0   

I tried out my teacher  "you've got to be kidding me" (bottom right) and "knock it off" (left) faces.

I worry that I look a bit too much like my father.

Trying to walk at first was almost comical.  I got a little motion sick and almost fell off the curb of the sidewalk trying to see where I was stepping.  It's an adjustment to be sure.

My kids don't hate the glasses.  It's nice that I'm not at the point that I'm blind without glasses.  It's all just another reminder that I'm getting older.  Gray hair, shingles, glasses.  What's next? Gout? Hip replacement?  It's going to be hard to make myself wear glasses all the time since I can see without them.   For now I am just going to tell myself that my glasses simply make me more interesting.

First Days

    The end of August marks the beginning of things.  I like to do a slow start and set up my classroom the week before I have to return for teacher in-service.  Bulletin boards are one of my least favorite things to do.  I had no idea what to put up outside my room.  None.  Thanks to Pinterest I was able to get a little inspiration. 

   While I love this result, it took several hours.

  I'm hoping that having a kickass bulletin board means I'll have a kickass year.  Can you say kickass in Catholic school?  Hmmm.

Robin was tasked with helping me for a few days while his siblings were camping.  He was pretty cute and would walk around with the ipad pacing or sit next to me in the hallway while I worked.

Over the course of about 4 days I got my room looking pretty good if I do say so myself. 

Is it wrong that I kind of love my bathroom passes?

Lest anyone thing I am a super woman who does it all without any problems.  Let me dissuade you of that notion.  I tend to take on a lot and push myself.  In the days just before teacher in-service I came down with SHINGLES!  Shingles, the disease of the elderly, characterized by extreme pain.  Shingles can be brought about my stress.  If you've had the chicken pox, you can get shingles.  All it takes it putting your body under lots of stress or having a weak immune system.

Shingles.  Holy cow it was painful.  The right side of my head felt like it was on fire.  I could not have the slightest movement of hair without pain.  At other times sharp spikes of nerve pain would shoot out my eyelids.  I do not recommend shingles.  I tried to be a good little teacher and go to in-service.  But the shingles was too much and I went home sick.  At this point, two weeks after the onset of symptoms I end each day with the world's worst headache, the feeling that my face has been given laughing gas, and occasional shooting pain.  Fun times.

Yesterday was the first day of school.  All three kids were genuinely excited.  Linus got to miss the first half of the day due to a dental appointment.

Is it too much to ask that they all look at the camera?  Eileen (2nd), Linus (4th), Robin (Pre-4)

Eileen now holds her face a weird way for pictures and wouldn't let me take her pic.  Linus wanted brother shots.

Another year of 6th grade for me.

 Everyone had a good first day.  All three kids have awesome teachers this year.  Robin's only complaint was "I didn't move one bit!"  He was upset because they added another pre-K and that meant he stayed in the same room as last year.  If that is the worst thing you can say about school, then I think we are going to be okay.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

      You know it's summer when the pumpkin spice latte makes its triumphant return to Starbucks.  I did my part to welcome in fall.  This year our family kicked off Labor Day weekend with Dave's birthday.  It was a low key celebration with takeout teriyaki and s'more cupcakes.  Linus had soccer practice so we let his the other stay up late so we could all eat cupcakes together.  I got Dave a certificate to Gallagher's U-Brew in Edmonds.  I promised to try whatever he makes.

    Friday night was soccer practice in preparation for Linus' very first soccer tournament.  Linus got his special soccer bag with practice uniforms, game uniforms, team sweatshirt, and team tracksuit.  He was so excited and happy, so much so he didn't sleep and was up at dawn.  Dave spent Saturday and Sunday with Eileen and Robin while I hung out at Starfire and Southcenter Mall with Linus.

    I don't know the rules of soccer.  This weekend I learned about off sides.  It was fun watching the boys play and getting to know the other parents.  Linus' team played with such heart.  I started the weekend with low expectations and was shocked when they won their first two games, including a shut out.

   Saturday night my sister asked if she could babysit our kids as a birthday present to Dave.  Best.present.ever.  Seriously.  No money?  No creativity?  Give a parent the gift of your child supervision.  They will love you forever.

   Dave and I drove around Phinney/Ballard/Fremont and stumbled across Giddy Up Burger Bar.  I had no idea what to expect.  I also couldn't believe that I ordered a sloppy joe.  The beer/cider menu was awesome.  My sloppy joe was ridiculously good.  The place is big and no frills.  What they lack in some aspects, they make up for with awesome seating.  With no kids to fight over it, I let the birthday boy sit on the special chair.

 Before Sunday's game I took Linus to get a haircut.  How did this guy get so old and so handsome!?!

     Sunday's game was hard.  The team was a little sluggish and couldn't find their rhythm.  The shocking part was the behavior of the other team.  Parents screaming on the sidelines, stepping onto the field to yell at players (theirs and ours), coaching from the sideline, coach throwing a water bottle, getting in the ref's face.  The parents were horrible sports and would set off their car alarms every time they scored.  The other team was very aggressive, to the point that one kid punched one of ours in the face.  I don't know why the ref was calling stuff.  It was not a fun introduction to the world of youth sports.  The game ended with our team in tears.

   The good news/bad news was that the team made the finals.  The other team was the awful team.  The coaches did a really great job of pep talking.  I get the sense the tournament organizers got some complaints about the team.  The ref made all the parents move back from the field.  The parents were close to silent.  No car alarms went off.  The coach was pretty quiet.  At one point the coach started yelling and the ref stopped the game, pointed at the coach, and marched over to him.  Coach was silent with arms behind back.  It was kind of great.  Today's ref called all the rough play.  No longer fending for their lives, our boys played great.  Linus, while one of the weaker players on the team, did an especially great job with defense.  The team played to a shoot out and lost.

    2nd place your first tournament feels good, especially when you know you played with integrity.

   

   The unexpected highlight of the weekend was Linus' discovery of IHOP restaurant.  I took Linus there in between games on Saturday for a cheap meal.  Linus could barely catch his breath, he was so overwhelmed by the menu.  He informed me that you could tell IHOP was a "fancy" restaurant because of the variety of syrups on the table.  He was impressed that there was even honey along with jelly.  Linus loved IHOP so much he insisted we take his siblings there for lunch after the final game.  The drive consisted of Linus extolling the wonders of IHOP.  The whole experience served as a reminder that kids don't need a lot to be happy.  

    We finished the weekend playing at the playground of the elementary school by our house.  This afternoon I put out some of the fall decorations.  My house is now pleasantly accented with orange.  It makes me happy.  I'm ready to welcome fall--new school year, crisp sunny weather, sweaters, cross country meets, and pumpkin everything.

From the Mouths of Babes in August

Robin: I'm keeping this stick.  It has ultimate skills.

Robin likes to watch other people play video games.  This transpired during a game of Crunch Time on my phone.

Robin:  You're doing it wrong!  You're trying to lose!
Me:  I'm sorry I'm not as good as Aunt Sally.
Robin:  No, you're not! You're way bad!

Robin:  I have money. (pulls out felt toy money) It's fake news.

The Scraggle

Eileen is one of the most beautiful humans I have ever met, inside and out.  I love her furiously, even when she is driving me nuts.  I used to be able to exert my will on her a little -- select her outfits, style her hair.

Eileen is now her own woman.  I may buy the clothes, but she selects her own outfits.  Why wear a cute outfit when you can wear an old camper t-shirt (or better yet--old tye dye!) and sweat pants paired carefully with bulky socks and striped Toms for shoes.   I let her be herself.  I lovingly refer to her look as "slightly feral." She is required to wear a uniform to school so I try to let her choose how she dresses in her free time.  I just ask it to be weather appropriate.

Hair is a completely different issue.  Eileen has thin, dark blonde hair.  It has an inability to be pulled straight back.  If you do, it splits into sections, creating rows of hairs standing erect.  It begins to tangle almost immediately after brushing.  

Last year I discovered the magic of the Wet Brush.  It easily works its way through tangles and doesn't leave a heavy residue like de-tangler.  When she was younger, I used to pull the top of her hair back and to the side.  We called this "Eileen" hair.  It worked well.  She frequently wore her hair in two ponytails and would sometimes let me even braid her hair.  Eileen has elicited stares and gasps when she wears her hair in braids.  She looks that stunning.

Eileen could care less about winning admiration for her hair.  These days I have to beg her to let me put her hair in a simple low ponytail.  When she does let me, it lasts less than an hour.  Once free of its elastic prison, her hair quickly looks like this.

I call it, "The Scraggle."

The Scraggle frustrates me to no end.  Last year a teacher asked Eileen, and not in a joking manner, if she had forgotten to brush her hair that morning!  I wasn't mad.  I felt validated!

I keep wondering if Eileen's hair will thicken when she turns twelve like mine did.  School begins in one week.  My hope is that Eileen will decide that this year she would like to pull her hair back, even just partially.  I'm pretty sure this is pay back for my youth.  In third grade I remember fighting my parents about my hair on picture day.  They made me wear a barrette.  I was scared of the consequences if I took it out.  The barrette didn't look good and I have a weird smile on my face.  But I suppose the point was that you could see my face.

My plan right now is to perform subtle acts of subterfuge. Eileen does a pretty good job using a brush.  These are my next steps.

1. I'm going to help her learn to use an elastic hairband to pull back hair.  She owns plenty. 
2. I own a book of different braid hairstyles.  I will leave it lying on the coffee table next to her favorite chair.  
3. Then I'll suggest we practice braiding yarn.  I learned to braid in girl scouts.  We braided strands of yarn and stuck cinnamon sticks and cloth packets of cloves in the yarn.  
4. Then, "Hey, wouldn't it be fun to practice braiding each other's hair?"

It will be mother-daughter bonding at its finest!  I'm optimistic, but also realistic.  I know that The Scraggle is going to stick around for a while longer.  I love my slightly feral daughter.  She is a creative, free spirit. She has no interest in boys, drama, or princesses. She likes graphic novels, crafting, art, swimming, and cats.  Someday I may even miss The Scraggle.  Someday, but not today.

Battle Point and Blackberries

This week the kids and I took our annual summer adventure to Bainbridge Island.  It's always at the top of the kids' lists of places to go.  This year we met up with my aunt, Eileen, at Battle Point Park.  It's a large park with a lot going on and I'm pretty sure that if I lived on the island, I would spend a lot of time there.

It has a great playground (similar to the one at St. Edwards).  The playground was not crowded at all.  Miracle of miracles, all three kids even played together!

We walked around the park with a goal of seeing one of the ponds.  The park has trails (both paved and not).  Along the way we found some good blackberry picking.  Aunt Eileen thought ahead and had buckets ready for picking.

Aunt Eileen is camoflagued.  I love how Linus is peeking out through the bushes.

We headed back to Aunt Eileen's for lunch.  Her house is always exciting.  There are literally thousands of gnomes, cool workshops, and a large garden.

The kids took it upon themselves to harvest zucchini and blueberries from the garden.  We picked more blackberries.  While I hung out with my aunt, the kids found my Uncle Duane in the garage.  They were excited about the motorcycles.  Linus has big plans.

Linus is singing, "He'll be driving 6 black horses when he comes."  I'm pretty sure he was thinking of the 4 black horsemen of the apocalypse.

We finished off our day at Mora Ice Cream while waiting to take the Kingston ferry home.  Wow.  It may honestly be some of the best ice cream I have ever had and that is seriously saying something.  

Robin, in true Robin form, only ate a few bites but managed to get it all over his seatbelt and face.  I was a good mom and helped him eat his ice cream.

The kids had a great time entertaining themselves.  I love the summer magic of Bainbridge Island.

Today I invited my mom and sister over to make blackberry jelly and offload some zucchini on them.  During childhood August meant an abundance of zucchini, blackberry picking on Bainbridge, and canning blackberry jelly.  

While we didn't do full on canning, we did make some excellent jelly.

Of course Linus had to pretend he was bleeding.  Grandma thought this was hilarious.

If you haven't made jelly.  Don't be scared.  I just followed the recipe on the pectin container to get me started.  I did replace half the white sugar with brown and added in 3/4 tsp allspice.  The result is awesome, cobbler tasting jelly.

These are the types of days I hope my kids remember when they look back on their childhood.  

**Full disclosure, I hope they don't remember yesterday when they fought non-stop and I thought I was going to lose my mind.

Back from Bosco

I sent the big kids to Camp Don Bosco last week.  This year I planned ahead and sent them AT THE SAME TIME!  It was an awesome week from my end.

Monday

Drop Linus off at camp.  He went with his friend, Alex.  Linus was a little annoyed to find out he was in Tonga again.  I think he had dreams of Snoqualmie Lodge.  Another boy from school happened to be in his cabin too.

From camp, we drove to first to Target and I did some school shopping with the other two.  Then we were off to Ballard to take Robin to the doctor for a massive ear infection.

Tuesday

We had a nice slow morning.  I cleaned house.  We had frozen yogurt.  I got to go to the eye dr.

Wednesday

I drove Eileen to camp for mini-camp (4 days instead of 6).  She was so excited.  Apparently, it was former staffs' kids go to camp week.

Down his big siblings, Robin got to look forward to a life of freedom and choice.  First stop?  Snoqualmie Falls.

Robin requested Pagliacci for lunch.  Then we drove to West Seattle for a mommy playdate with two friends from my grade school/high school days.  Robin was a very good sport while I enjoyed grown up conversation.  We took a leisurely drive home where we stopped by Dick's (another favorite of Robin's) for dinner.  Life with just one kid is so much more chill!

Thursday

We enjoyed another slow morning (ie I slept in and let Robin play on the ipad).  Then we investigated a new park (Bothell Landing).  We walked the trails, climbed and slid on the playground, and played Pooh sticks on the bridge.  Let it be known that I won.

In the afternoon, Robin patiently allowed me to have a 3 hour meeting with my school principal about the master schedule.

Down to one kid, it was a little simpler to find childcare.  Dave and I went on a date!

Friday

In the morning another teacher friend and her two little ones came over to play.  I graciously offered to hold the baby and put her to sleep.  I was surprised that Robin actually engaged the little 18 month old boy.  Generally, Robin is not awesome with kids younger than him.

In the afternoon we helped Aunt Sally run errands in Ballard.  We took her to a toy store. We introduced her to Full Tilt Ice Cream and made time for a little video game and pinball playing.

Robin with Blue Moon.

Saturday

We picked up the kids from camp.  Eileen was in a cabin with the kids of two former staff.  She had a great time.

What were the names of the other kids in your cabin?  I don't know.

What was the name of your counselor?  I don't know.

What was the best part of camp?  Pool.  Everything.  I even went off the diving board ten times! (This is huge as Eileen is generally scared of things like water slides and diving boards.)

Why yes Eileen is wearing 3 shirts - the shirt she put on before breakfast, her new camper t-shirt, and her new tie dye shirt that you can tell she did "with no help."

Linus had a mixed experience.  He liked his counselors and had fun.  It sounds like there were some boys in the lodge that made things difficult. Linus had his heart set on a few activities that didn't happen.  Good news? He still wants to go back and he has big plans for next year.

When he packed for camp, Linus only packed one change of clothes and no underwear.  He straight up told me it wasn't going to be necessary to change his clothes.  I went ahead and added some more clothes and underwear to his bag. I can confirm Linus did change his clothes at least twice.  He brushed his teeth once.  He did shower, but did not use soap.

Robin missed his people.  He had a hard time sleeping at night, knowing Linus wasn't there.

I missed the big kids, but I loved the relaxed nature of just one kid, particularly one who is more likely to go with the flow.  I think Robin enjoyed all of our special time together.  I went back to work when he was one.  He didn't get as much time with me as a stay at home mom.

"Helping" me with the laundry.

Camp continues to be a happy place for my kids.  They talk about summer camp all year long.  Some people are shocked when they hear I send my kids away overnight, even as a 6 or 7 year old.  My response, "Why wouldn't I?  It's awesome."

1.   They have fun.
2.   They gain independence.
3.   They play hard.
4.   There is no screen time battle.  There are no screens at camp.
5.   I get a guilt free break.  
6.   In this case, my youngest got some much needed alone time with both his parents.

If they let kids entering kindergarten go to mini-camp next year, I will be signing Robin up.  He is insanely jealous that his siblings got to go.