Beautiful

Have you seen this?

Watch it with a Kleenex on hand. I've actually seen this famous father-and-son team in the Boston Marathon. But this is the Ironman Triathlon!



On a separate but marginally related note, CVS is having their $1 fund drive to support ALS research this month. The hospital in Boston that started the ALS Therapy Alliance is the one where my dad has received care for the past six years. Y'all donate, okay?

On the Stands

I walked into the grocery store (Central Market) this afternoon and guess what I saw on the newsstand?

My article! My article! The July issue of Parentwise:Austin is out and my very first-ever cover story is in it!!!

I felt like jumping up and down in the produce section, right there among the exotic melons. It was almost as exciting as that very first email I got from the Mothering Magazine editor offering to publish my story three years ago.

I'm not going to read the article, of course, because I never read my stories once they're in print. But you know I'm sending a copy home to Mom! LOL! I'm nervous, of course, because although I got really positive feedback from my editor, I just hope kids in the band like the story ...

(This month's issue isn't up on the PWA website yet, so you can't see it ...)

Did I say it was too quiet?

Well, we HAVE had a quiet week, really and truly. Some days, that worked (like yesterday, with the spontaneous fountain magic). Other days, like today, the day just seemed loooong with no plans until our swim date with the Atkinsons at 4:30. I know we need downtime, I know we need a break from any scheduled lessons, I know I need time to do stuff like weed through my tupperware cabinet and fling the topless and bottomless stuff (sorry, that sounds racy, I know). But I seem to get really antsy when we have too much time without items on the agenda -- either outings or things accomplished together at home. I totally admire other families, esp. other homeschoolers, who can just be so at peace with tons of unstructured time at home. And I feel like a total oddball sometimes, but I just can't do that for very long. I mean, I can do it when the kids are involved in some gloriously creative tomfoolery involving the dress-up box or homemade catapults or whatever, or we're snuggled up on the couch reading a good book together and no one's climbing on my neck. But when the boredom hits and they descend into bickering, to the tune of "Mooooooomm! ____ did _____ to me!" or they flop around sighing, or the only book being delved into is Calvin and Hobbes and I'm being badgered for computer time, and I don't quite know what to do with myself because I suddenly find myself with unexpected time where no one needs/wants my presence, but if I start something meaningful (like a blog post or scrapbook page) my presence with be IMMEDIATELY and URGENTLY needed, and goodness sakes, who really wants to make like a hamster on a treadmill and pick up around the house with every spare pocket of time???

I think that last sentence was a phenomenal run-on.

I also think this is a bit of a downer of a post ... but yesterday's was just so picture perfect that in the interest of honesty I feel an obligation to give you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth -- as I see it, anyway. Which is, in so many words, that we have our magical moments and our moments where I'm stymied and my kids, like kids across America on 100-degree days, are bored and have to be admonished testily by their mother to go be productive if they don't like her ideas. Heh.

But I leave you with this proof that even the most unambitious of days can suddenly sprout wings. On Tuesday morning -- how did I NOT blog this before? -- my dear, dear, toddling daughter, who has been warned more than once about this behavior, stuck a dehydrated pea in her nostril to amuse her older siblings. (I was purging the cloth diaper stash in the other room.) Can you guess what happened?

If you guessed that the pea got stuck so far up that she could neither sneeze nor blow it out, and had to be taken to the minor-emergency clinic to have it extracted by a highly amused doctor, you would be right. I texted my fam during the ordeal and my brother Paul, that master of the dry wit (Jim from The Office is modeled after him), texted back, "O Lord, release the pea!"

Which is one of the reasons I love him. :-) After all, it's not every brother who would petition the heavens for supernatural dislodging of vegetable matter from uncomfortable places.

A summons for the Tooth Fairy

Finally, finally, Ian lost the broken baby tooth that had been marring his smile for months now. I had been thinking of getting him in at the dreaded dentist to get it extracted, since the adult one was starting to grow in behind it, but yesterday it finally yielded to the inevitable.

And look at the tin he made for the Tooth Fairy ("I KNOW it's you, Mom") with some of Melanie's stamps:



Unfortunately, he lost the tooth before placing it into the tin, so had to write an note of explanation, with a plea for mercy, to the T.F., instead. The Fairy seemed impressed, because (s)he left a dollar anyway, with an extra penny to boot!

This morning Eliza had Kindermusik for two hours, and I honestly didn't know exactly what I'd do with the other two in the meantime. I had a couple ideas -- feed the ducks behind the Arboretum? go to the free showing of Charlotte's Web at the nearby theater? -- but it turned out to one of those rare and magical mornings that simply unfolded itself just right. At Ian's request, to which I usually say no, we got a snack at Chick-Fil-A (I love the fact that they have REAL lemonade there), and then spent 45 minutes at the Arboretum, playing in the outdoor, shaded fountain and making boats out of sticks and leaves that we could send shooting down the stream to each other. If I'd tried to plan a perfect morning, or herded the kids out the door to go play in the fountain, it wouldn't have worked, but this is what happened ON OUR WAY to the proposed outing that didn't actually happen (the duck-feeding).

More simple gifts.

Siskel and Ebert Get Cozy

Here they are from behind, watching their favorite movie in the whole world, The Adventures of Robinhood.

From the Caroline Files

"At the CareBear Day Spa"
(with apologies to William Carlos Williams)

so much depends

upon a seat on the floor

in a shaft of morning sunlight

with a two year old

bent over her work

polishing your fingernails

one by one

with shiny concealer

and confiding in you that

she loves Jesus

but does not want

to smell Him.

Revisiting a classic

Remember those wonderful Betsy-Tacy books (and later, Tib)? We've started reading the first one, Betsy-Tacy, about two five-year-old friends at the turn of the century, with Eliza and she's in looooove. Tim said that tonight as he turned the page and she caught a glimpse of Betsy and Tacy spreading out their paper dolls in the parlor, Lizey just sighed and said, in the dreamy voice of one who has seen the literary Promised Land, "Daddy, it's all just so ... beautiful."

Ian, on the other hand, isn't as easy to please in the fiction department, but we came up with a recent winner: Edward Eager's Knight's Castle. He's on his second reading through, and it looks as though dear Mr. Eager has more treasures in store for us. Let the salivating begin.