Sports Day

Today the girls and I spent the morning at their school for a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. I'd talked a few young guys from the school where I teach into being "our" team in the tournament, and we went to cheer them on. While they didn't win, it was so fun being a part of an event like that, swarming with dads, brothers, uncles, and friends of the kids at the school. (Actually, the place was swarming with testosterone, and I have a feeling a lot of women looked at their sore, beaten, and scuffed up men tonight and said, "I'm not feeling sorry for you. You did this to yourself.") I had to smile at the two teams that made it all the way--probably the oldest guys in the tournament, who played like they were the featured game on ESPN. Age has this funny way of taking normal competitiveness and adding a dangerous element of still having something to prove. It makes me recall how often I saw my own dad lying on the living room floor, nursing a back that had spent too many games of racquetball putting some young whippersnapper in his place. :)

Then we went to an event that grouped kids by age, then rotated them through various baseball skills with the purpose of putting them on teams. We've never played baseball. Really, never. While I went to (and loved!) a lot of Orioles games growing up, and I know how to play and have participated in games for fun, I've never really liked playing baseball. There's too much time spent waiting for one's turn, and I'm kind of a play-all-the-time-and-play-hard kind of person. But the girls had seen a flier for this event and were interested, so we went.

And now they're signed up for baseball. I know--I was kind of caught up in the moment. It was fun to see them trying these skills for the first time and seeing them get excited. We'll see how it goes. The next step is to buy some baseball gloves, a bat, and a ball. And pray that our girls have an easier time waiting for their turns than their mother does. :)

You know you're tired when...

...you pull a Lysol wipe out from under the bathroom sink and, instead of using it to remove toothpaste, soap scum, and fingerprints from bathroom surfaces...you use it to wash your own face.

Trying to See Eye to Eye

Yesterday we had a tech from Verizon at our house to restore our internet. While he was in the back of the house with Alan, I was gathering up the girls to run some errands. Amelia was in the entryway and I buzzed past her on my way upstairs.

"Where are you going, Mom?"

"To the bathroom."

"Why aren't you going in the bathroom down here?"

"Because the man is here working on the internet and I don't want him to HEAR me."

She looked at me blankly and I reiterated, "You know, hear me peeing? Do you understand what I mean?"

"No, Mom. I'm just a kid. I don't get that kind of thing."

That would explain how often she is seen buck naked around here.

Seeing the need to be more specific...

I just realized that we've sort of "let it go" (which OF COURSE gets a melody from "Frozen" stuck in my head) that the girls have, since they were wee, called their "private parts" their "privacy."

This came to the forefront just now when the girls were looking over Alan's shoulder as he was logging into a website for them.

"Eeewww!" screeched Evelyn, turning away from the screen.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"The computer said, 'We value your privacy!'"

Spitting Fire

The other day the girls and I were dining at my parents' and the conversation ranged from funny things kids say to the number of years they'd lived in the three houses of their marriage.

At one point my dad asked me, "Do you remember what you said when we told you we were selling the house?"

I shook my head.

He smiled and said forcefully, imitating a younger me, "'You can't sell this house! This is MY house!'"

I laughed, "That's hilarious! Had I even seen the house on Deveron Road at that point yet?"

"Seen the house? You didn't say that when we were moving TO Deveron Road, you said that when we were moving FROM Deveron Road, 15 years later."

I stopped laughing. It had been funny imagining me saying that as a nine-year old person. It was not quite so funny imagining me saying that as a 23 year old person...who was working full time as a teacher and living in her own apartment while making that vehement statement and claim to her parents. Yikes.

So I had no doubt today where Evelyn inherited her impulse to make the following reply today when I told the girls we'd be taking naps to make up for a few late nights in a row:

(Pointing her finger at me) "NO WAY! I am NOT taking a nap. Naps are for BABIES, and I am NOT TAKING ONE. That is NOT RIGHT." She then put on the first pair of shoes she could find (snow boots), walked out the back door and slammed it behind her.

So, while "rest time" WAS enforced and the girls spent 1 1/2 hours in their rooms, it was proudly reported to me that no sleeping took place. (And, in her defense, our passionate eldest daughter made that report while giving me a whopper of a hug.)

Trying right now to imagine a 23-year old Evelyn...

I found my dream house.

Check it out!

All it needs is one extra room for a music studio--or maybe it would be a simple, additional outbuilding!

Sigh!

In Praise of Parking Lots

Alan and I have lived in two homes since we got married--both adjacent to parking lots. This lot, directly across the street from our house, is the reason our front porch is so private (no neighbors peering in), and, since there are no buildings, provides a great view of the sunsets and, if we look out the upstairs windows at night, of twinkling city lights.

It also becomes a great extension of our front yard on snow days. 

A couple snowstorms ago, Alan and the girls staged a massive snowball fight out there. Depending on the type of snow, the slight slope can make for a decent (if mild) sled run. When there's no snow, it's a great place to ride in circles on a scooter or a bike.

There have definitely been times that I've thought how nice it would be if our front porch overlooked fields or woods. But I must say that an awful lot of fun happens in that parking lot. And if our front porch overlooked fields or woods, it's unlikely I'd be able to walk to a grocery store, dry cleaners, coffee shop, restaurant, or local church concert.

Thank You, Lord, for this parking lot.

“And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.” 
― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

Food Fun

Amelia's homemade soft pretzels (they are in the shape of LETTERS, in case you are tempted to see them as slugs.) These are very easy and fun to make, although I will admit I ate WAY too many of them. Fresh soft pretzels right out of the oven?? (In fact, I think Amelia originally made all the letters of her name. I'm sure she had some help from her very generous mother in whittling those seven letters down to four.)

And the Mickey Mouse pancake. I go through long stretches of commitment to making hot, homemade breakfasts. Currently, however, we are in a phase of get-up-and-pour-your-own-cereal. I have every confidence that we will return at some point to the hot breakfast phase. I know this about myself now. I am consistently inconsistent.

I took this picture to send to my friend Cal, who works as an executive assistant at the Disney offices in L.A. He loves that when someone at his work puts him on hold, the soundtrack from "Frozen" plays as he waits.

What excitement looks like:

This is Evelyn reacting to being told that I'd called one of their favorite babysitters to come watch them.

Evelyn's always been a very shy and reserved child.

She's not one to emote too much.

Unfortunately, the babysitter wasn't available--she was rehearsing for a production of "Seussical, Jr." which we were able to later attend. And, of all things, she played the kangaroo!

Here are my Seussical girls at the pre-show craft activity--what fun! And our babysitter was AWESOME--definitely worth jumping up and down about! :)

Kids + Boredom = Creativity

Recently a friend of mine posted on her FB page about homeschooling her nine children. She said she'd learned that one of the key elements of homeschooling was to allow her kids to experience boredom.

It made me think of a chapter in Janet Luhrs' Simple Living Guide about simplifying family life. She quotes the author of  Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, who recalled coming home from school as a teenager and experiencing boredom that was "exceedingly unpleasant, so unpleasant I would eventually decide to act--to do something. I'd call a friend, I'd go outdoors. I'd go play ball. I'd read. I would do something.  Looking back, I view that time of boredom, of 'nothing to do,' as the pit out of which creative action springs."

Last week the girls were off school and I was working from home. Evelyn came upstairs, head back, mouth agape, and whined, "We are SOOOOOOOOOOO bored!!!" I said, "Good! It's good to be bored. It means you have to be creative."

So they were. With zero prompting, they spent a few hours making these beautiful paper chains. They had to find all the various papers, cut them into the appropriately-sized strips, and staple them together.

Oh, and Evelyn also folded all the laundry that day. Out of boredom. So apparently, boredom can be the pit out of which springs not only creativity, but utility.

(NOTE: I am fully aware that this could have ended VERY differently. They could have chosen to create a wall mural using sharpie markers. They could have experimented with metallic objects in the microwave. Or they could have done what just happened here two days ago, when the class hamster, staying with us for the weekend, was given a spontaneous and unsupervised bath "because she smelled so bad." So far the hamster has shown no ill effects, although she may not be happy to learn that she's going to get an extra day at our house thanks to the incoming snow.)

I heard more's comin'!

I gotta admit, I've never outgrown my love of snow or snow days. It's hard to believe that the girls can now enjoy the snow outside by themselves. We've done some sledding and tubing together this year (what fun THAT is!), but they've also logged some serious hours in the back yard having good, old fashioned fun.

Supposedly it's going to snow tomorrow night.

Maybe some ice, too. (See our icy tree behind the girls in this pic? I look at this and wonder why on earth they're not wearing coats. Then I remember--I have a hard time noticing those things. Obviously I'm much more concerned about capturing a photo of them in front of the icy tree before school than whether or not they're wearing coats to school. In fact, Evelyn told me the other day that her teacher told her that she HAD to wear a coat the next day. Guess I'd better start paying attention.)

Ok, Winter, bring it on! You've only got a few weeks left. Let's make 'em good ones! :)