Merry Christmas, 2013

Our teeny little table-top tree.

The much more impressive tree at my parents' home, where we open gifts.

From left to right, Rosie, Dash, me, Granddaddy Jim, Monkeyrotica

Dash's favorite Christmas gift!

Rosie's favorite Christmas gift!

Dash's 2nd favorite gift, still pretty excellent.

Rosie checks out a book from Santa.

A board game? Well, maybe Dash will enjoy it later.

Nobody's touching Rosie's precious LPS toys. Look away NOW!

I hope everyone I know had a fantabulously tremendous Christmas (or whichever Holiday you celebrate) and I wish you an excellent 2014. Happy New Year!!

Holiday Whirlwind!

Here are the results of our holiday whirlwind, with photos and video!

Thursday, December 12th, 5:15 pm. Visitors' Day, Tap Class.

Rosie's Advanced Tap Class had a "Visitor's Day." The class pretty much went on as it typically does, only parents are not allowed to observe; this is the only day of the year we get to sit in and see their progress in class.

Rosie and her class got to show off her excellent tap skills while performing to music, such as "King of New York" from the musical, "Newsies."




Same Day, 6:30 pm. Holiday Concert at School.

Immediately after tap, we ran home  to get Rosie in her outfit for the Winter Concert: white top, black bottoms, black shoes. We were late. Thankfully, she left her cello at school because we probably would have forgotten it. Somehow, I managed to still get a seat in the second row of the audience (thanks to a friend). Here, Rosie's intermediate strings class (5th grade) plays "Jingle Bells."



I was surprised to see Rosie join the chorus group to sing during the choral program. She didn't sign up for chorus, and her name wasn't in the program for chorus! What she explained to me later is that her entire class signed up for chorus and if she didn't go, she would be alone in the classroom. So she just went, and enjoyed herself!



After the concert was over, I left immediately for my dance class — it was our last practice together before (foreshadowing...) our Holiday Performance on Sunday. 

Saturday, December 14, 10:30 am. Tae Kwon Do Belt Test.

We were invited to the Tae Kwon Do studio's Holiday Party on Friday afternoon, but were already feeling harried after all the driving around on Thursday. We took Friday off from all the hectic festivities, but were back on for Saturday.

At 10 am, I drove Rosie to the dojang to practice before she started her belt test at 10:30. I was excited for her especially because this would be her first time breaking boards at a test. She was testing for her Blue-Stripe belt (between green and blue).

There were some rough points for her test, and a bit of stress and handwringing on my part, but she did pass. Her best parts were her forms, which she performed beautifully, and the boardbreaking, shown in this video.


After the belt test and lunch (the test was over two hours!), the kids packed their suitcases for an overnight at Auntie M's. Always a fun time. It's an hour and a half drive, round trip, so by the time Monkeyrotica and I arrived home, there was just enough time for us to get showered, primped, and coiffed for...

Same day, 6 pm. Company Holiday Party.

 Monkeyrotica and I had RSVP'd yes to my new company's holiday party. I have been working there a few days shy of exactly one year, so I missed the prior year's fête by a slim margin. Attire was "cocktail" and the venue a suave tony nightclub in DC, so we dressed to the nines. In our own way. Monkey's idea of cocktail, or at least party attire is his black leather blazer and pants, black turtleneck, and motorcycle boots. We looked pretty good, anyway. I loved the colored glass chandelier!

I had fun with my favorite coworkers in the photo booth!

I was the designated driver, since I needed to be sharp for the dance performance the next day...

It all seems like fun and games until... THE HOLIDAYS

My parenting plan has been for each child to have one sport and one musical instrument in addition to school. Rosie has also shown an interest in the arts, performance and visual; Dash enjoys strategy games like chess. There are after- or before-school classes for any or all of these interests; I don't discourage, but choose what we can fit in very selectively.

Sport
When our pediatrician told me last year that the kids were both overweight and needed to have at least an hour of sweaty activity every day, I enrolled them both in tae kwon do. TKD meets three times a week, which covers some of that allotment. Their PE class only meets a couple days a week and lasts about 30 minutes, so that doesn't cover much. Rosie also has a tap dance class that meets once a week, and seasonally, I put Dash in soccer or track (each meets one day a week).

Music
Rosie started the cello program at school last year, took weekly lessons through the summer, and (despite sporadic practice at home) is now a "leader" in the cello section, according to her Strings teacher. Dash is taking weekly piano lessons with a neighbor.

Performance Arts
In addition to Rosie taking tap lessons, I take modern dance classes and Jazzercise to stay healthy and have fun in my spare time. Rosie is in a weekly "art club" at school.

ALL OF THESE ACTIVITIES HAVE HOLIDAY PARTIES. 
Starting today, there are non-stop winter performance/open house/holiday parties through the weekend. Thank goodness the piano teacher took a holiday — there is no piano party.

Thursday (today): 
5-6 PM, Tap Class Open House (Rosie performs)
7-9 PM, School Winter Strings/Band/Choral Concert  (Rosie)

Friday: 
5-6:30 PM, Tae Kwon Do Studio Holiday Party (optional, Dash wants to go)

Saturday:
9 AM, Jazzercise Holiday Party (optional, Nylon, going to bail)
10:30 AM - 12 PM, TKD Belt Testing (Rosie)
[no specific times] Taking kids to an overnight with Auntie, Nylon gets coiffed/primped
6 -10 PM: Office Holiday Party in DC (Nylon & Monkeyrotica)

Sunday:
[no specific time] Picking up kids from Auntie's, Nylon gets coiffed/primped/costumed
1 - 3:30 PM, The Dance Studio Holiday Program (Nylon performs with modern dance class)

I'm sure I'll make it through the weekend, but I'm crawling into a hole Sunday afternoon.

S'mores cookies

I entered these cookies into a baking contest at my company's picnic this summer and while they didn't win, they were a clear favorite with the younger picnickers. It's a very simple recipe, with only about eight main ingredients: graham crackers, butter, sugar, an egg, flour, marshmallows, and Hershey's kisses. 

This great recipe came from http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/. 

S'mores Cookies Recipe:

(Makes 2 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

1 c. graham cracker crumbs

1-1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c. unsalted butter (room temp)

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

20 large marshmallows, cut in half

Approx. 40 chocolate kisses

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  

2. In a large bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside. 

3. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugars together until creamy and smooth. 

4. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.  

5. Add the dry ingredients slowly and mix until just combined.  

6. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto a baking sheet, 1-2" apart. 

7. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until edges are just getting golden brown. 

8. Remove from oven and gently press a half marshmallow, sticky side down, onto each cookie.  Let cool completely.  

9. When all cookies are cooled down, preheat broiler.  Place cookies back on baking sheets and broil for 1-2 minutes, keeping a close eye on them so they don't char. 

10. When marshmallows are golden brown, remove from the broiler and place a chocolate kiss on top of each cookie.

Making "Chocolate Pots de Crème"

Dash wanted to make "chocolate cream," but none of us could figure out what exactly he meant. His description was, "I want to heat up some chocolate and then drink it." Since he wasn't talking about hot cocoa, we discussed a few different recipes that came close before deciding to go for Julia Child and Jacques Pepin's "Chocolate Pots de Crème" from their co-authored Cooking at Home book. 

Here are the ingredients (not too intimidating, right?): 

We started out by separating out four egg yolks and whisking in 1/3 cup sugar. 

Dash tried some of the whisking, but it eventually got too thick for him to whisk. We heated up a pint of heavy cream to a simmer, then gradually poured the hot cream into the egg-sugar mix (careful to temper the eggs! didn't want a scramble).

We poured the custard through a sieve over the broken chocolate pieces (Dash smashed them with the butt of a knife through plastic wrap), then added 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla. We realized immediately that we should have done this over a double boiler, because the chocolate wasn't melting. Lucky for me, Monk already had one ready to go!

After the chocolate melted, I poured the mixture into ramekins (recipe called for six 1/2-cup ramekins, but I only had two 1/2-cup and three 3/4-cup ones) using a ladle.

The ramekins needed to sit in a baking pan with hot water poured in to fill halfway up the sides of the ramekins. 

I baked them at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Here's how they looked right out of the oven:

They need to cool for at least four hours in the refrigerator, so I'll have to wait to taste them! I'll update when it's time.

UPDATE:

Verdict = delicious!

Rainbow loom craze is at my home

Both Rosie and Dash have been making Rainbow Loom bracelets and necklaces on their looms. Even though I'm finding little rubber bands in random places all over my home and am regularly fielding demands for new colors, I'm glad that it's a craft that crosses the gender barrier. 

Rosie and her loom

Loop colors, separated in a compartmentalized bin

Dash's bracelets

A complex bracelet Rosie made for Grandma I

A yellow and green bracelet that Rosie made for Dash (his fave colors)

The kids have a few books that show how to make different designs and sometimes watch YouTube videos to improve their craft. I'm impressed with their dedication!

Balancing your child's school lunch

Anyone who knows me or who has read earlier articles on this blog knows that I struggle with feeding my picky children healthy foods. I've tried various ways, some even deemed ingenious, to get my kids involved in choosing healthier options and balancing their portions. My kids have seen a nutritionist on a few occasions and I've educated myself a great deal on the protein, fat, and carbohydrate ratios in many foods. The majority of the foods we buy are raw, unprocessed, and contain whole grains; vegetables and fruits are primarily served raw, and we make attempts to prepare meals to keep vitamin content intact, with minimal added salt or sugars. After Monkey was diagnosed with gout a few years ago, I needed to become even smarter about his trigger foods and learn what proteins to avoid in foods on his behalf.

I can't imagine how I would feel if my kids' school sent home a note like the one below, and attached a monetary fine for not including one arbitrary item, in this Canadian mom's case: grains. What if my kids had eaten more than their daily allotment of grains in their breakfast cereal that morning and I was compensating that overage by leaving it out of their lunch? I would be outraged if a school had force-fed them fatty and processed-grain heavy Ritz crackers!

From the Weighty Matters blog out of Canada:

From Yoni Freedhoff's blog entry:

"Apparently if a child's lunch is deemed 'unbalanced,' where 'balance' refers to ensuring that a lunch conforms to the proportions of food groups as laid out by Canada's awful Food Guide, then that child's lunch is 'supplemented,' and their parent is fined.

Blog reader Kristen Bartkiw received just such a fine.

She sent her children to daycare with with lunches containing leftover homemade roast beef and potatoes, carrots, an orange and some milk.

She did not send along any 'grains.'

As a consequence the school provided her children with, I kid you not, supplemental Ritz Crackers, and her with a $10 fine."

Outrageous and crazy! I know some of us aren't as informed as others regarding proper nutrition, but what if you didn't have the money (or didn't get/have access to the store that week) to provide all food groups, or if your child has serious allergies, or if you have valid, personal reasons for not providing certain foods that are none of the government's business? If I were fined for providing a non-compliant, but healthy lunch I would be rightfully livid.

Forever home for our bunnies!

Cookie, sweet and adventurous

I haven't explained yet how and why we still have the bunnies, have I? Looking back through my more recent posts, I realized that I said we just had them for the summer, etc. But, nope, they are still with us! Here's how this happened.

Honeybun, dominant and a little set in her ways

During the school year, Dash's classroom had two rabbits, two guinea pigs, and two turtles that I know of; there may have been more. Mrs. C. loved her animals and the enrichment activities (animal care and feeding) that they offered for the students, who of course adored all of them as well. Dash, in particular, begged us to get him a bunny as a pet for months. Watching them over the summer was, in my mind, a trial run to see if our household could support a rabbit or two.

Bunnies sharing a snack

I heard some rumblings from a parent or two over the summer about the rabbits, with comments like (insert comically musical voice), "Ohhhh! So *you* have those rabbits, hm? I was woonderiiing how that was goooiiing!" But it wasn't until I caught the parent of one of Dash's classmates at the grocery store in August that I found out what the tone behind the comments meant and why Mrs. C. had been so quiet all summer.

Because of all the mess that six animals (especially the large rabbits who were often left running wild in the room, to be sure) were making in the small classroom, the school custodians had held a meeting with the principal. They were tired of cleaning all the animal feces. The students created enough of a challenge for them, and they hadn't signed on to be zookeepers as well. The ultimatum the principal had given Mrs. C. was "no more animals."

So, the bunnies couldn't go back to the school. Where would they go if we tried to return them? With the "bad rep" they had gotten with the other parents (that is, messy and stinky), would any of them step up? I had litter-box trained them and we all had gotten pretty attached to them. The idea of our rabbits going to a shelter... well, not going to happen. After a family meeting about the bunnies, we agreed to keep them. I insisted that we would get them spayed and change their names, since they were ours now! I was never a fan of the name "Mary Potter," and even less fond of "Bugs Bunny" for a female rabbit. Their new names are respectively Honeybun and Cookie (with prior names as nicknames when they slip out).

They're still not free range in our home, just because they chew on everything. They occasionally escape through a door left cracked open, and we end up chasing them under a bed or couch. It's working out just fine to corral them to the back hallway/bathroom, or alternately, the kitchen as needed. Just for fun, I sometimes let Cookie have an adventure in Dash's bed, hopping over all of his toys. I've tried it with Honeybun, but she seems more stressed out by the change in scenery than loving it. They do love getting their faces scratched! Over time, I'm hoping they'll get comfortable enough to get more snuggly with us. If not, there's plenty of love to go around! We all enjoy Cookie and Honeybun's company. Well, maybe except for Weegee the parrot. He's still not sure what to think.

Rosie's Rainbow Scarf

On September 29th, Rosie and I went to Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair together and among the many amazing purchases we made was a beautiful skein of hand-dyed rainbow yarn from Folktale Fibers. I just finished knitting it today, and just in time; Rosie's 11th birthday is Wednesday! After knitting the first skein, I realized that the scarf was too short, so I had to order a second one, which delayed its completion. Rosie loves rainbows and she picked out the yarn, so this is her perfect scarf. It looks lovely on her, too.

I spread the scarf out so the beautiful reds, oranges, and pinks can be seen. She likes the purples best, so I made a point to end the scarf with the purples in front so she could enjoy them. Rosie's modeling the scarf next to her signature rainbow hairband. I'll go back to check, but I think in almost every school portrait of her back to Kindergarten, she's wearing her rainbow hairband. Now she'll be pairing it with her matching scarf!

NaBloPoMo, and Happy All Saint's Day

It's National Blog Posting Month again! I'll have to admit that I'm feeling pretty rusty at writing, but I'll plow into it. For Halloween this year, we went as a family to the elementary school's Halloween Fun Night. As usual, it was crowded and warm, but the kids were glad to run into and socialize with their friends.

Dash, in the "hooded scream" costume, found his buddy, Max, who was wearing some sort of Norse god costume. They're adorable!

Rosie was dressed as an "Artist Vampire" and didn't want her photo taken. I snapped the photo below before she had a chance to dive out of my camera's way! Dash has been carrying a camera around with him lately and told us that he was thinking about being a paparazzi — he'll get plenty of training just by trying to get a shot of Rosie. She's wily!

Rosie did her own makeup for vampire teeth and blood and was pretty proud of her work. Funny, for our actual trick-or-treating, we didn't have a chance to get the makeup on (for anyone's costume actually; gotta stay on schedule...), and without the teeth, everyone guessed that she was Little Red Riding Hood. Understandable, don't you think?

It was dark and rainy on Halloween night, but we made the best of it. We brought umbrellas, I wore a big hat, and had plenty of glow-sticks and flashlights. The kids had quite a haul, as the places they visited had plenty of candy! There seems to be fewer and fewer trick-or-treaters on our street—we only had 6-8 visitors—and I'm not sure why. There are plenty of kids on our street. I'm thinking that the parents take them to parties instead or a busier neighborhood and just hang out. I don't blame them. Dressing up and getting candy is fun, but when it's cold and wet? It's nicer indoors.

Is trick-or-treating going strong where you are? Or is it on the wane?

(Not quite) Free-range Rabbits!

All the other images I posted of the rabbits show them caged, so I made an effort today to take a few photos while the were hopping around! It was pretty tough avoiding motion blur, as they're constantly moving. In this first photo, you can see a little bit of the large, white wire corral that we borrowed (permanently?) from our neighbor. Her daughter used to have a a bunny and she was happy to lend it to us. She used to set it up in the yard outside to let the rabbit get fresh air and grass under its paws, but we're not quite that adventurous — yet.

Mary Potter, in the corraled area

After I set up the corral in a doorway that had access to the bedroom where their cages are, I learned that they won't "spray" or excessively "pill" to mark their new "territory." Whew. They really made some messes when we unknowingly separated them from their "home base." I learned from an article about litter box training (h/t Kellygo), I'm apparently doing the right thing (now, not at first!) by introducing them to other rooms in stages, so they get used to their location in relation to where their home base is.

Bugs Bunny, grooming Mary Potter in the kitchen

We first let them roam around Dash's room, their home base, then moved them to the bathroom. Bad idea — much territory marking. We tried corralling them in the dining room, first in one area, then around the dining table, also bad ideas with lots of sanitizing afterward. Earlier this week, I let them roam from Dash's room (home base) through to the kitchen, which worked out great until Bugs Bunny got too curious and hopped over a solid, 24-inch barrier. Yesterday, I had the brilliant idea of using the corral as the barrier, letting them wander from the kitchen and a short way into the living room, and be able to view the surrounding areas. That worked very well! Only one little "pill" at the end of the corral, to mark their new "territory." They still have a very clear path back to home base.

Bugs Bunny, lounging in the kitchen

Maybe soon, after we introduce more new areas, we can get some bunny-proofing going and let them have more range through the house!

My new morning schedule, with rabbits

Adding two rabbits to our household requires more than a few adjustments, especially in my morning schedule. Looks like I'll need to actually get out of bed *with* my alarm, and not goof around for 10-15 minutes...
 
5:25: AJS gives me a kiss, leaves for work
5:30: Boss texts me not to pack a lunch, we're having a group lunch today (BTW, good morning!)
5:35: Alarm goes off; check texts, Facebook, play words with friends before dragging self down to shower.
5:50: Shower, dress, load laundry in the washing machine
6:15: Get kids up, pester them to wear their swim outfits for summer camp water-park day
6:30: Put up barriers, let rabbits hop around while I make breakfast
6:45: Kids shuffle out from their bedrooms; tell kids to pack their dry clothes and towels
7:00: Hand kids their breakfasts over the rabbit barriers
7:05: Prep kids' lunches, get nose-bumped in the legs by hungry rabbits
7:15: Pack kids' lunches, give rabbits carrot & apple scraps
7:20: Chase down escaped rabbit who hopped over a two-foot barrier (taller than her), toss her back over the barrier
7:25: Put rabbit food (hay and pellets) into their cages, chase rabbits into cages 
7:30: Yell at kids for not dressing in a swim suit (Dash), packing their clothes and towels, brushing their teeth, or putting their shoes on; blow-dry my hair
7:35: Using a Sharpie pen, draw flames on previously rejected OMG pink! hand-me-down water-shoes for Dash; they are deemed okay.
7:40: Get in car, drive to summer camp, drop off kids
7:50: Head to work

I haven't fully wrapped my head around letting the rabbits run free through the house. I've noticed that when we corral them outside of Dash's bedroom (where the cages are), they poop and pee all over; but when they do have access to their cages, they scamper back to the cages every few minutes and I don't see poop anywhere. Once I have a chance to secure all of our chewables (especially electrical cords) I'll consider letting them run around with express access to their cages and see if this prevents the free-pooping that happened last night in the corral. Trial and error!!

Making the best of a long weekend

We've all been in the house together since Thursday morning, except for kids' playdates on Friday. Rosie had been asking to play with a new friend, Paige, and Finn had been asking about Dash. Dash rarely requests playdates and prefers playing on his own, which is okay by me, generally, but they needed to get out of the house! We were all getting on each other's nerves and were more than a little stir-crazy.

On Friday, Dash went to Finn's and I tried to take the girls to River Farm, but I swear, every time I try to get in there, it's closed for a private event. Same thing yesterday. I ended up taking Rosie and Paige to their elementary school's playground and believe that they enjoyed having it to themselves instead of sharing it with everyone in their grade for a change. We stuck around there until lunch and returned for Nutella sandwiches, fruit, and carrots before I set them up to play Just Dance 2 on the Wii. Two o'clock snuck up on us, and it was time to take Paige home. The girls weren't at all ready to part and were begging for an extension, so I accepted a bargain to drop them at Paige's until I returned from Finn's with Dash.

Dash and Finn had been peacefully playing Legos the entire time. Finn's mom expressed to me that for two boys that are so disruptive while in class, they played like quiet little mice. We exchanged several observations about their first-grade teacher and the negative comments on interim reports before Dash and I were on our way. Back at Paige's, we met her little brother, Chase, who is also six like Dash, but a year behind in school. True to their names, they were running circles around each other in the front yard, fast friends. I couldn't help commenting on it a few times—go, action verbs! We promised to schedule more play time for them all together soon, as it was such a great success.

Saturday morning, I left the house to make the first Jazzercise class since Wednesday afternoon, as they'd cancelled all the in-between ones for the holiday. It was PACKED. I managed to squeeze into a spot in the front corner and had a blast as usual! Harmony (today's instructor) is so easy to follow and doesn't crank her tunes too high. I wear earplugs a lot and wind up missing cues in other classes. Still fun!

When I got back and showered, we had already worked out that we would all take advantage of the lovely weather and walk to the library. Rosie has a biography project due next week and needed to pick up some books for research. To sweeten the deal for the kids, Monkeyrotica had found a walking path on Google Maps that cut through the neighborhoods and made the trip less than a mile one-way (by car, it's 1.5 miles). Rosie found her books and we each picked up another book or two; all the books ended up in my bag to carry home. It was close to lunch, so we walked another half-mile out of our way to get sandwiches at one of the few local delis (read Monkey's Yelp review). I don't think Rosie and Dash even noticed that they walked about 2.5 miles today, with all the exploring, leaf-kicking, and bird/squirrel/deer spotting.

It was such a beautiful, warm day—really a gorgeous weekend! I'm so glad we didn't just stay indoors, which is what might have happened if it had been colder.

Goals for the summer: biking and swimming

School will be out for my kids in just one week and we are putting them in full-time summer day camp. Additionally, we are cancelling all extra activities (with their associated fees) that the kids have been involved in throughout the year, such as soccer, karate, Junior Jazzercise, Spanish language, art studio*, calligraphy, ballet, and tap.

Rosie's new bike, bought via Craigslist. A side note: the seller (picked for proximity only) KNEW me! I had met her and kids at a work party. How random is that?

 

What I would like to do for the kids this summer is two-fold: teach them to swim and ride bikes. I've been so busy shuttling them to activities and focusing on signing them up for stuff that actually getting out there and teaching them these skills has gone by the wayside.

Part of the block, I think, is that each of these skills is not something that they can do on a Tuesday and pick up the next Tuesday (which is typically how I schedule things). They need to practice for a little while every day for a week or two. I just watched a YouTube video that gave some great tips on how to prepare your child for bicycling, and it made so much sense! TAKE THE PEDALS OFF. Get your kid to practice pushing with their feet, balancing, and stopping (the new bike has a hand brake) all before the pedals get in the way. The video wasn't embeddable, but check it out here.

Rosie actually told me that she wanted to learn to ride a bike and to swim this summer, which is great! She really hadn't expressed much interest before. I think I can train them to ride bikes myself, but the swimming? Not so sure. I'll probably need to get private lessons or something, despite my training as a YMCA aquatics instructor 25 years ago. They are stubborn little creatures that refuse to put their heads in the water.

* Rosie told me that she will be very disappointed if she's not in an art class this summer...

First Soccer Club Practice!

Rosie attended her first practice with the soccer club! She's been participating in an after-school soccer program for a few years now, but I have had no indication that they actually play games; it's more about gaining skill with the ball and agility as a player.

Her first two practices were rained out (and the temps were in the 40s—brrrr!), so in desperation, the coach scheduled an extra practice this past Sunday. They had beautiful weather and the girls had such a fun time.

One part Rosie didn't like so much: in their scrimmage, there was an odd number of girls, so the coach asked her to be a "floater," meaning she was on the team of whomever held the ball. Practically, this meant the other girls didn't know which team she was on and nobody passed the ball to her. That's a tough position to play, but someone has to do it!

The next practice is tonight and her first game will be this Saturday. Cross your fingers for good weather!

Overbooked, Overscheduled, Oh!

Dash's karate kick!

Months ago, back at the beginning of the school year, I made a personal decision. Now that I had two kids in public school, which comes complete with the shorter days that make a working parent's nerves twang, I had to make a concession. Either my kids would come home from school and watch TV until 6:30 when I arrived, then quickly shovel dinner in and finish homework before they dropped; OR, I would shorten my hours so that I could be home when they got home. I shortened my hours.

When I first envisioned the extra two whole hours balancing away in my work-life scenario, they seemed like golden, glittering minutes, full of promise. I could choose after-school activities for the kids. I could go to the gym. I could get all those to-do lists of home-chores done. We could gambol in the yard, go for hikes, schedule playdates! So, you smart people, you already know the reality, don't you?

What really happened at first is that when I got home earlier, the chores started immediately, dinner happened much sooner, and then TV and homework and collapsing. No gamboling, no walks, no hazy crisp fall afterschool playdates. Perhaps what was wrong here was a lack of structure, I thought. I started to schedule activities.

Rosie and Dash were already taking tap and ballet classes on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. Last summer, we added Saturday karate for Dash, while Rosie did Japanese calligraphy. They were also taking afterschool soccer on half-day Mondays, but that ended at 2pm and Grandma S picked them up (thanks, mom!!). Of course, I have my modern dance class too, on Thursdays. This winter, we added art classes for both Rosie and me on Saturdays and Mondays; soccer had ended, Rosie dropped calligraphy and I took a break from dance just for home-life balance with the art class. For Dash, we added a language class on Wednesdays, Spanish, and for Rosie we added Junior Jazzercise on Thursdays, which just ended. The Winter-term art classes just ended, as well. Have you lost track yet?

Here's how things look at the moment:

• Monday: nothing
• Tuesday: nothing
• Wednesday: Spanish, tap 
• Thursday: modern dance
• Friday: nothing
• Saturday: karate, tap
• Sunday: nothing

Only three days booked? My brain fired: must schedule MORE!!! What did I do? I signed the kids up for Gunston Soccer Club, a local competitive league. I sure had my rose-colored glasses on, because I thought that since some close friends who have kids (the same ages and genders as mine) were also registered, that all I had to do was request that we have the same teams for our kids and it would happen! I imagined carpooling and sideline flask-sipping with adult friends while our kids frolicked happily around the soccer fields.

Reality hit when I got their coach assignments and details about the league.  A gut-punch to the stomach: neither child was on our friends' team rosters. Carpooling? Out the window. I only recognized one parent's email address from either list. But the freak-out really happened when I saw the scheduling... Thursday practices for Rosie starting at 5:30 (with an optional Tuesday clinic), and game day Saturdays; Friday practices for Dash (at a different location) at 5:30, game day Saturdays—each child would have two games back-to-back, with times scheduled by luck of the draw. With two kids, you could potentially be at the soccer field for most of Saturday, worst case scenario.

What was I thinking? Dash already had two Saturday activities! And while Rosie likes soccer well enough, she wanted to continue with art or Jr. Jazzercise, which are scheduled on Saturday and Thursday, overlapping. This is a very popular soccer club! How do all the other parents do it?

In tears, I emailed Dash's coach and told him that I wished to withdraw Dash, sight unseen. He was very nice about it, even trying to offer scenarios for me to keep Dash in the club. I stuck to my message and said no, again and again. He finally got it and took Dash off the roster. Instead, I put Dash back into the Monday afterschool soccer, where there were no conflicts. Rosie will stay with Gunston for now—I'm curious to see how the club works and whether it's manageable for future seasons.


A quick recap of schedule to be (four days scheduled):


Monday: Dash, soccer
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: Dash, Spanish; Rosie, tap
Thursday: Rosie, soccer club practice; me, dance
Friday: nothing
Saturday: Rosie, soccer club games (starting 4/9); Dash, karate & ballet
Sunday: nothing

I've still got ideas bouncing around in my head. I want Dash to try the track team and Rosie to get back in art. I'm not sure this soccer thing is going to work, but if she likes it, that's what counts (I know Dash loves it). I'm here to give my kids opportunities to try different things and see what they're good at, learn to use their bodies and minds, practice and develop. I'm helping them become well-rounded little people.

But, y'know, I still need to be able to schedule a haircut for myself now and then. 

I think I'll need a clone come November 13th.

(Stricken text taken from Leonard's tattoos in the 2000 movie Memento.)

Never answer the phone. How will I keep track of all this?

Fact 1. Male. November 13th is Rosie's 8th birthday. She has invited a select group of her friends, mostly from her 2nd-grade classroom, to go ice skating (thankfully, outside the home).

Fact 2. White. The ice skating party falls squarely over the lunch hour, so I'll be catering lunch as well as cake for the party. Solution: Pizza delivery services will help with this one, and I've asked a party guest's parent to make the cake.

Fact 3. First Name: John or James. Dash's karate class and his dance class will both be overlapped by the birthday party. Solution: We will do a make-up class later on for karate and a parent of one of Dash's playmates will deliver him to dance; Monkeyrotica will pick Dash up.

Fact 4. Last Name G___. Monkeyrotica has a dental appointment that overlaps Dash's karate and the beginning of Rosalie's party. Um, yep. And I scheduled it, I sure did.

Fact 5. Drug Dealer. Monkeyrotica's birthday is tomorrow (if you read my blog and you feel like it, wish him a happy day on 11/5!) and we are ALSO having a party for him (with his select guests) later in the afternoon on November 13th (yeah! two parties on the same day!!). Monkey will be prepping barbecue for it starting the night before, before and after the dental appointment, and all the way up till his party. I'll drop Dash off at his playmate's house and head to Rosie's party after he leaves for the dentist and will be back to help two hours before it starts.

Fact 6. Car License Number SG137IU. Um, I think I need to take Friday, Nov. 12th off! I'll be delivering birthday cupcakes to Rosie's classroom that afternoon and will very likely need the whole day to get the house ready and obtain supplies for the weekend.

I'm disciplined and organized. I use habit and routine to make my life possible. Between now and then, I'm planning to unpack the basement, make Rosie and Dash each a Totoro doll (already started), and maintain the entire house in a presentable state for guests. I keep telling myself:

"I can fit it all in! Of course, it'll all work out in the end and everyone will have a great time."

I'll be repeating that mantra in my head all the way until 11/14.

School year scheduling

We've made several new scheduling transitions for the 2010 school year thus far, to move toward balancing the rocky mountain/valley that is our work-life, especially now that both kids are in public school. The changes all arose from my need to adjust my work hours, because getting home after 6:30 p.m. every night just was draining me, with only 90 minutes to spend with my family before they were all in bed for the night.

What we had been doing:
When Rosie started Kindergarten two years ago we made some big changes to make the timing work, first with Monkeyrotica changing his work schedule, arriving super-early and leaving super-early (and as a result, exhausted and going to bed the same time as the kids). Grandma S came to our house every morning for the past two school years to help Rosie get ready for school while I took Dash to daycare. The first year and a half, Grandma S also came after school to pick up Rosie from the bus stop, but when we moved Dash to a pre-K closer to home this past January, Monkey was able to make the bus in time.

What's the latest twist? 
Monkey still has his early-early workday, but I'm dropping both kids off at morning-care (a.k.a. school-age child-care or SACC). At work, I've shortened my days slightly to arrive home in time for the bus because I've decided that the after-school time between 4-6 pm are golden hours of family engagement time. Even this early in the school year, the kids are bringing home homework, which is best done while they have enough energy to complete it, not after dinner when they're starting to get bleary and surly. Also, many age-specific after-school activities, like sports clubs, scouts, art classes and the like are scheduled right when school ends, so if I want to get them to an activity, I need to be around. Monkey's already said that due to his complete disdain for all things sport-related, he's not schlepping kids to sports training. And the other activity that the kids were missing out on? Playing with the neighborhood kids. Today, after school, Rosalie will have her 2nd ever playdate with one of the little girls who lives one block over. Why weren't these happening earlier? Let's just say, out of sight, out of mind——by not being home earlier and visibly available, my kids just weren't socializing with the neighborhood kids (even though there are a dozens of them in their age groups). Starting this week, I'll be home every afternoon at 4! Yay!

Results: More family time and kids activities (and homework).
The activities are already racking up. Monday is after-school soccer for both and Wednesday is tap class (just Rosie). I want to get them both into an art class when it comes available, and maybe into track club. Neither of them have shown any interest in scouting, which is fine—that's a major time-suck what with all of the parent-volunteer work. On Saturdays we also have back-to-back Japanese calligraphy (Rosie) and karate (Dash), then Dash takes ballet in the afternoon. For each, that's currently 3 activities. Not totally overscheduled yet, right? There are still four free days in the week for family walks, bike rides, and outdoor fun! And, then just maybe I can fit in some crafting or personal activities, huh?

Back to the homework, however. Dash was out of school with a fever for three days last week, and I was completely blindsided by the nine make-up assignments that were sent home with him on Friday. I didn't even notice they were in his backpack until Sunday night after they were in bed! I'm becoming aware that we haven't really established our home as a place of learning, because the children truly struggle with the assignments. Groaning, flopping, distractions, sidetrips, stalling—Dash has been trying the works. This morning, I realized that I had a trick in my back pocket: their morning care. The kids are supervised by licensed childcare professionals for 1.5 hours before their bus arrives and they have a homework table. SCORE! I had no idea that I'd be calling on them so soon, but we were getting nowhere at home. Out of nine assignments, Dash scribbled out one yesterday, fighting it the whole time. Today, sitting down with the staff at SACC, Dash was working away on his homework even before I'd left the room. Warms my stressed-out, stretched-thin-mom's heart.

I'm feeling really good about all these schedule decisions! Which helps a great deal, because our basement flooded AGAIN last week and we have to replace the flooring, with three to four expensive days of repairs and installation ahead of us.

Deadlines looming...

"Deadlines looming" has been my life as of late. I'm racing to keep up with everything and falling behind. Since it's exactly one week until the First Day of School for Dash, who is starting Kindergarten, and Rosie, who will be starting Second Grade, I hereby owe you, my dear blog readers, the following blog posts with photos:

1. Dash's superhero costume party
2. Birthday events for my fortieth
3. Our Rehoboth beach trip
4. Dancing/Art/Karate updates

Let's just see if I can get up three out of those four before next Tuesday. A betting person would put money on this not happening, so let's put a challenge on. The first reader who calls me out next Tuesday as not actually having three posts up wins a prize! What shall it be...? I think I have an extra DVD set of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3" that I'll mail free to you. And, well, if that's taken, we'll work something out; maybe a felt flower pin, similar to this white one I made, pictured here? (This post needed at least one photo in it...)


However, between now and next Tuesday, I'll be (and here comes another list, because lists are a busy person's best friend):

• working full-time
• attending the elementary school's Thursday "Open House" (where we find out which teachers the kids will have this year)
• taking kids to calligraphy & karate classes
• baking 72 cupcakes for our friends' Saturday wedding (Rosie is frosting them)
• delivering cupcakes to the wedding
• attending said wedding
• helping cook (in the loosest sense of the word) for the groom's Sunday block party (the following day)
• attending said block party, and then
• working a full day on Labor Day Monday (sorry, Monkey).

So, lucky winner, you may still get your prize!

Monkeyrotica has Tuesday off, so I'm expecting him to take lots of adorable photos of the kids getting ready for their first day! Since we are using morning SACC, it would be fabulous to get pics of the kids getting off the bus, right? Please?

How my brain ties events together

I missed the very last final exam of my college career.

Isn't that every college student's nightmare? You cram all night, then arrive at the exam hall at the testing hour to find it deserted? But, I didn't wake up in a sweat, screaming; it actually happened.

The fact that I missed the event has everything to do with how I schedule things, with my particular way of stringing my plans to each other. I might loosely pin an event to a Thursday, but it also is stuck to other events, like "after I pick up the dry cleaning" or "before my dance class." Sometimes I might say "tomorrow" to someone, actually meaning "the next time I see you."

What happened on the day of my "Literature of the 1600s, The Awesome and the Sublime" (a class that I adored!) exam was several weeks in the making. I knew the day and time of the exam, of course, and along the way, my parents told me that they were arriving that same morning to pack up and drive me home after graduation. So, in my head, I roped those two events together tightly: i.e. my-exam-is-on-the-same-day-my-parents-arrive. However, in the weeks before said day, while I was in the midst of the other exams and projects and papers leading up to the final days of my senior year, my parents switched their arrival date. To the next day.

Can you understand what happened? I didn't see the repercussions, I just stormed ahead, with my little threads of planned events all strung together, bobbing along ahead of me, without looking at a calendar. My parents arrived. At 3 p.m. that day, I went to the exam hall. All that late afternoon, I attempted to get in touch with my professor and finally found her home number in the white pages. She and I were both distraught about my absence at the final until I remembered that I had taken her class—which was far, far outside my major—pass/fail. Her response, "Pass/Fail? Oh, OH! OF COURSE you passed!!" If I had taken the class and exam with standard grading, I would have had an A. I graduated, with one credit to spare.

This anecdote is an illustration of how I process schedules to this day. Yesterday, for example. I had a full schedule at work, and was planning to meet friends at the end of the day. The happy hour was cancelled, but I had strung the rest of my day to that event. Forging ahead, I decided to cut that thread, and tie on my usual Wednesday plan: go to the gym. I also had to collect Rosie and take her to a recently rescheduled swim lesson immediately after my gym session. Knot.

What did I forget? I had invited my dear husband, Monkeyrotica, to the happy hour and had arranged for my mom to watch the kids while we socialized. He and my mom bumped into each other at kid-pickup, while I was at a secure gov't customer meeting with my phone off. Hilarity (and many apologies) ensued.

Is this peculiar to anyone else? Is it a symptom of a right-brain thinker? Or am I unique?