I'm NOT that old

A month or so ago, Nathan asked me, "Mommy, when were you a child?"
I thought a second and answered, "Oh, about 30 years ago."
He eyes widened a little, and he said, "Wow, that's a lot of numbers."
Yes, I suppose it is.

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Earlier this week, Paul asked, "Mom and dad, did people make a lot of carrot shaped containers way back in the 1900's?"

I replied, "What do you mean by carrot shaped containers?  Wait.  Wait a minute!  Did you just say, 'Way back in the 1900s?'"

"Yeah, I saw this carrot shaped container on a cartoon and thought it looked like something people actually made."

"Do you mean to say that you are calling something you saw on a cartoon, 'Way back in the 1900s'? Like, way back in the 1990s?!  The 1900's weren't that long ago.  You may not say, 'WAY back in the 1900s.'"


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Today is the kids' 100th day of school.  Petra's 1st grade class is celebrating by dressing up as if they were 100 years old.  She was pretty excited about it.  I forgot to powder her hair for her, not that I was eager to anyway, but I helped her dress up.  I found a pair of wire frames from glasses I used to wear.  Then I realized that the purple, cable knit cardigan I was wearing would be perfect, and we put it on her.  She was so proud.  And then I realized that to make my daughter look like she was 100 years old, I dressed her up like me.

Ow.

Paul: Grub Master

I feel really proud of Paul for being grub-master for his patrol (7 to 10 boys) on their camp out last weekend.  Steve had to rein me in from taking over on planning and prepping stuff for Paul.  

PJ had to work with the meals his patrol agreed on, which for this camp-out was a little more elaborate than typical.  He found recipes - okay, I found recipes and then told him how to look them up.  He made a shopping list, went with Steve to buy the food, and helped prep a bunch of it before leaving.  One of his scout leaders sent pictures of him Saturday night, showing them how to make monkey bread in a dutch oven. 

Before he left on the camp out, we had him practice a couple of the recipes at home.  He made us waffles one morning to learn how to use the waffle maker.  On the camp out the ended up doing pancakes instead because as Paul said, "The box said it was just add water, but that's not for waffles, just pancakes.  The box lies!  LIES!  If you don't have oil, the batter sticks to the waffle maker.  LIES!"

We also made him practice making the monkey bread at home.  I was pretty proud of him, because I was feeling sick the evening he made the monkeybread, and Steve was out of the house.  Paul had to lift the heavy cast iron dutch oven into and out of the oven all by himself.  Plus I wasn't cleaning up after him, so he did that himself too.  

Grandpa Hughes might give us some ribbing about using Pillsbury biscuit dough to make the monkey bread, but for Boy Scout camp out, it was brilliant.  And Paul did very well.

Recovering from illness.

Julia is about at the end of around of antibiotic for pneumonia.   She seems to be feeling a little better each day, which is good, because here is a snapshot of what last week looked like.

1-10-17

6:15 p.m. Nathan, feverish, puts himself to bed.

6:30 p.m. I realize Nathan has gone to bed.

8:00 Julia, feverish, gets cough syrup.

8:30 p.m. Girls go to bed.

9:30 p.m. Dog refuses to go outside because of rain. I, also feverish, threaten that if she wakes me up in the middle of the night to go out, that I will toss her on Steve's head.

10:00 p.m. Parents go to bed

10:30 p.m. Nathan wakes up a little distressed that he didn't have bedtime routine.  We get him a cup of water and he lets me tuck him back in bed.

1-11-17

3:15 a.m. Julia says, "Mom, I have another nosebleed.  It's really bad this time."  We go into the bathroom until it subsides, clean her face and go back to bed.

3:20 - 3:45 Julia and I take turns coughing at each other from our bedrooms.

3;45 I get us each a cough drop, and we prop up her pillow.

3:50 Julia continues coughing, gags and throws up on her bed. (This will be the 1st of 4 times she vomits from coughing fits over the course of the week.)

3:55 I strip Julia's bed, realize it is still too early to give her more cough medicine and boil some water so we can breath steam.

4:00 a.m. Nathan wakes up and comes downstairs feeling chipper and ready for breakfast.

4:10 I suddenly remember Vick’s vapo-rub, and the vaporizer.  I set Julia up in the guest bedroom with both.

4:15 Nathan and I crash on the couch and he alternates between chatting and dozing.

5:10 Phone rings.  School district on a 2 hour delay.

5:15 Nathan starts telling me jokes about what would happen if chickens had phones.

6:15 Steve comes downstairs to start making breakfast.  Nathan and I join him.  Steve suggests we should take Julia to the doctor because of the nosebleeds.

7:00 Steve leaves for work.

7:15 Julia wakes up and declares her love of the Vick’s company.

8:00 I make a doctor's appointment for Julia

8:45 Paul catches the bus for school.

9:00 Steve comes home to take Julia to the doctor.

9:45 Steve texts, "Pneumonia."

9:48 I make a doctor's appointment for Nathan.

10:45 Petra catches the bus.

The good news was that neither Nathan nor I had pneumonia.   We all missed a week of school, work, and life in general, and I was glad that the next Monday was a holiday to give us all a little more time to recoup and recover.  And do laundry.  It seems strange, but even when mommy is sick, people keep wearing clothes. 

Looking ahead

One morning I was thinking ahead to what child would be in what school building for the next several years.  The following graph resulted:

Each color represents a different school building.  I feel like I should point out that I work for a university and assuming that (a) I don't lose my job, and (b) the children attend said university, we should get quite a break on tuition.

Here are the takeaways-

1.  We have precisely one year ahead when we will only be dealing with 2 different school buildings.  Otherwise we will have children in 4 separate buildings.
2. According to Steve, once a child hits 16 years old, that child is responsible for driving self and younger siblings to school.  So Steve has 2020 to 2024 covered, and then 2026-2028 and 2029 to Nathan's graduation in 2030.
3. Nathan graduates in 2030, when we will no doubt have a thriving colony on Mars and be investigating warp drive.
4.  Assuming 4 year plans, we will not have more than two children in college at once.
5. I'm not entirely hopeful that all my children will be on a 4 year plan.
6. There is an excellent chance that Nathan will be an uncle before he graduates from college.
7.  There is a reasonable chance that Petra will be an aunt before she graduates from college.
8. I'm hoping that having 4 children will increase the odds that at least one of them will be able to support Steve and I in our dotage.
9. This whole exercise has been really, really scary.

2016 in Review

Paul finished up 6^th grade and has started Junior High.  His first quarter nearly ate his lunch, but since then he seems to have found a groove for keeping track of his assign-ments.  Mostly.  He has gotten his 2^nd Class rank in Boy Scouts.  Paul and Steve went on a backpacking trip with the scouts in Great Smokey National Park, but the whole troop aborted after the first night because (long standing drought conditions notwithstand-ing) they were hit with constant rain followed by subfreezing temperatures.  It’s been a joy to watch my freckless boy slowly maturing.  He survived a week at summer camp sharing a tent with an older boy he doesn’t get along with, and while we visited Yellowstone this summer, he was Mr. Safety, making sure his siblings stayed on the boardwalks in the geyser basins.

Paul at a Lego art exhibit - imitating art

Julia is cranking through 5^th grade, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I haven’t done anything to help her with her homework this year.  She rocked out a solo part as Tina Turner in her 5^th grade music concert, and she started gymnastics.  The girl likes to throw herself around.  She has also continued weapons class and is specializing in fans.  Sugar and spice and a black belt, that’s what little girls are made of.

Julia has glasses full time now.  She looks so mature in them.

Petra is doing really well in 1^st grade.  Her reading skills are taking off and it’s funny to realize that she is suddenly reading what is on t-shirts that we’ve worn for years. She’s very proud of getting to choose whether to buy or pack her school lunches.  Petra is still taking tae kwon do with Steve and I, and she just earned her red belt.  She still has days when she would rather preen in the mirror than listen to her instructor, but she seems to have an aptitude for sparring.

Petra the irrepressible

 Nathan started a ½ day preschool this year; he gets to ride the bus there in the morning with Petra.  He’s pretty excited about writing his name, and we are working on persuading him to hold his pencil more like a pencil and less like a weapon.  He loves building with Legos and cracking us up with jokes as only a 4 year old can tell.  Some of the scenery on our road trip this summer inspired this joke, “Mommy, how did the windmill cross the road?  Like this!” and he waved his arms in circles.

Nathan the independent, busy, little squirt

I earned my black belt in tae kwon do in August, and a couple of weeks ago Steve earned his 2^nd degree black belt.  We were given the opportunity to help with the Eng-lish camp in the Czech Republic again this year. We couldn’t actually attend the camp because of our long planned big road trip, but it was really nice to help with pulling a team together. 

This summer we packed the kids in the Sub-urban and spent 3 weeks driving to Seattle and back.  We stopped to see friends in Iowa, visited the Ingalls homestead, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone, and stayed with friends in Seattle.  On the way home we celebrated Julia and our friend Tyson’s birthday in Grand Teton National Park.  We saw Craters of the Moon and the Old West Museum in Cheyenne.  In Saint Louis we stayed with friends and went up in the Arch before cruis-ing on home.  I think the kids got to climb on at least 1 playground in every state we visited, and Nathan developed an “allergy” to hiking.  I’m so grateful that we had a chance to share this crazy road trip and see AMERICA, or at least a big chunk of it, with our kids.

Kids excited to cross the Mississippi on the way home after 21 days on the road.