...

I haven't been here in a while. Quite a long while.

A long, long while.

How long, exactly, is a "while?"

However long a "while" is, I'm pretty sure I have not been here in many whiles.

Things happened. Life, I guess, is what happened. Life is what happens when you're making other plans, as a popular song says.

I moved houses -- a couple of times.

I bought a house -- with another person. He's pretty great, this person.

Susie, the Stupendous Subaru, died. I had to get a Toyota. She's alright, I guess; we're getting to know each other, I guess.

I left nursing, got a new job. I'm officially a lab nerd. It's kind of always been the dream job I didn't know existed, but was in the back of my head all the time. I'm okay at it and I'm trying to get better.

My kids grew up. Two of them are voting (!) adults with jobs and they're contributing to society. The third is a high school senior.

Somehow he's the third of my kids to become a high school senior and I'm still ... not believing it? How does that even happen?

I mean, I've watched it happen a couple of times already and I'm still, like, uh ... could you do that again, please? I didn't quite, uh, catch what you were doing there with that sleight of hand and all, so could you do it again? Just once more? You know, without the flashes and the spangles and the jazz hands? And maybe could you let me watch it in slow motion? That might help. Maybe?

But, no. 

No one replays these magnificent and humble moments for me. No one humors me, lets me savor the moments for a bit longer, or see them one more time.

I can't blame anyone. This is not a thing to be redone. There is no malice. It is just the way things are. 

Jazz band and marching band and tennis matches and report cards and final exams.

Homecoming dances and prom dances with dates and with best friends.

AP classes and college credits and chosen electives to match hoped-for careers.

Ordering graduation announcements and class rings and letter jackets.

Final sports and music celebratory banquets.

Ceremonies in Magnus Arena.

It is the period at the end of a movement of life. This is not a coda; there is no repetition now. The repetition might have happened when one of them were a freshman, sophomore, junior.

But no more.

Here we are.

I did not know where this post was going when I started typing. But here we are.

Here we are in the middle of a pandemic. More on that next time.

Celebrating the End of Another School Year

Freddy's Steakburgers and fries. Delish.

In Which Old Music is Revisited in New Movies

The kids returned from Albuquerque after summer break enthusing about their new favorite movie, Pitch Perfect. I had not seen it but they assured me that I'd love it. They quoted so many lines from it during the 3-hour drive, I felt like I had seen it by the time we got home. But since feeling like I had seen it and actually seeing it are not the same, they insisted we watch it. 

It is, indeed, a rather funny movie. Yes, it's a tween movie and yes, it's actually a musical. But I didn't hate it. I probably wouldn't have allowed them to see it on my watch (Uh, hello, language?! Adult situations??!!) if it had been totally up to me, but I wasn't consulted on that decision and the deed was already done.





Ace of Base's "The Sign" is performed repeatedly in this movie by the main characters, as are many other pop tunes from the 90s and forward. I didn't think much of it until the next day when that song happened to come on the radio as Miriam and I were out grocery shopping. When she recognized it, her eyes got huge and she stared at me incredulously.

I said, "You did know this was a real song long, long before that movie, right?"

She said, "Uh, NO!"

She sat in silence for several seconds and then did that whole hand-exploding-from-the-head thing that people do to signal that their mind has, officially, been blown.

General Life Update

It's finally, well and truly spring. I am loving every single second of the glorious sunshine and breathing in this amazing, fresh air while appreciating new buds and blossoms every where. The longer I live here and the more winters I endure, the more I love spring and summer.

The spring semester is nearly over. I can taste the freedom that lays on the other side of finals week. I have struggled with this semester. The work load isn't all that heavy; it just consists of a lot of new-to-me concepts. I am taking Intro to Chemistry and Biology II. I haven't had any chemistry in 18 years so it might as well never have happened. Bio II requires memorization of lots of life cycles I've never learned, cladistics (a word I did not know 10 weeks ago), and general maddening info that most people never know. In any case, I am almost finished and I am fairly confident I'll eke out As or Bs in lecture and lab for both classes.

I've enrolled in Chemistry I next semester. Originally, I also enrolled in Statistics because I found out I'm still lacking a semester of math and because statistics is integral to scientific research, which I want to do some day. But that would have required going to school 4 nights per week. There are many reasons I cannot do that: 1) I cannot handle working 4 days a week and going to school 4 nights a week while caring for kids and a home; 2) There is no way I can ask to be the early person at work all 4 days I am there so I can get to class by 6:00. My co-workers would revolt. 3) Chem I and Stats?! In the same semester?! No way, no how. Since Chem I and II are prerequisites to most of the other stuff I need for both my major and minor, I dropped Stats and will take it the following semester. This means I am only taking 1 class next semester when I've always taken 2 classes at a time. That puts me behind a bit but I think it's better to be behind than burned out.

Solomon is doing quite well. He's taking a lot more responsibility for his school work. As a third year band student, the time commitment is much heavier than it was the previous two years. His abilities are improving dramatically. He auditioned for both symphonic and jazz band for the high school and made both. He also joined the wrestling team at the middle school again this spring. Last year he won only one match out of the whole season and was pretty discouraged about it. The experience last year and hard work this year really paid off because he did so much better. He's gotten so strong and flexible! We were able to sign him up for an extended freestyle season at his future high school and he really, really loves it.

Miriam is really blossoming. She has made the honor roll several quarters in the last 2 years and that's even with taking honors reading and writing. As a result, she was recently invited to join the National Junior Honor Society. She is applying to be a WEB Leader for next school year. This is a student ambassador group which works throughout the school year to help new students and incoming 6th graders adjust to life in their school. I think she will be amazing at it. She still tends toward the quieter side in large groups of people but she can and does speak up when it's needed. Beyond school, she continues to be compassionate, sensitive, and friendly to a diverse group of people. She has a wicked sense of humor and makes me laugh all the time.

Samuel is still struggling a bit in school, but I've been able to work with his teachers and speech therapists to get more support in place for middle school next year. I have a feeling it will be a rough transition for him. I know he's tough, though and I'm sure he can rise to the challenge. He certainly is excited about it. We went to the middle school for a Sneak Peak night last week. They sent all the 5th graders on a scavenger hunt through the school to find various teachers, classrooms, and other important locations in the building. He told Miriam he didn't want help figuring things out and he ended up doing 90% of it on his own. He continues to be completely enthralled by video games and still says he wants to design them when he grows up.

Parenting, in general, is much less sucky than it was 10 years ago, or even 2 years ago. Solomon and I had a tough couple of years recently. We butted heads almost constantly over almost everything. But the last year has been much, much better. He's growing up so much and I'm learning how to parent a teenager. It's not easy -- for either of us -- but it's easier than it was. This new found peace is translating well into my relationships with the other 2 kids. I am really enjoying being a mom to older kids instead of toddlers and preschoolers. I am more and more solid every day in my decision to be done with babies. Man, that was rough.

In conclusion, life is pretty dang good and that makes me smile.

Generosity

Solomon and Miriam's school had a canned food drive leading up to the holidays. I packed up a few things from our pantry for them to take to school. Solomon said he wanted to send more, to buy more. I told him that he was welcome to pick out more from the pantry because I could replace what he took before we needed to eat it but I couldn't spend money on it because the grocery money was spent. He said that he wanted to go the store and spend his saved allowance on some more food.

So he got his wallet and I took him to Target.  Considering that he had less than $15 saved up and he's been wanting to buy accessories for his PSP, I figured he'd spend a couple of dollars, five at the most.  But, no.  He picked out some cans of veggies and then moved on.  He kept adding up prices on the calculator and came to a total of $12.  I asked him if he was sure.  He said yes, with no hesitation.

As we headed to the cashier, we passed a display of DVDs.  He paused for a second and sucked in his breath when he saw that The Hunger Games was selling for $13.  He loved those books; he read them all twice.  He adored the movie.  He is dying to see the second movie.  I thought he might change his mind about spending most of his money on food for the food drive. I could see the internal conflict as his face changed expressions.  But then he let out his breath and kept walking.

That is my kid. He is amazing.

Let It Be Known ...

... that on this day, Solomon discovered that he is taller than I am.

:sigh:

A Simple, but Very Enjoyable Weekend

Samuel flew to Denver from Houston all by himself on Friday.  It's a long story including the ex-husband planning a vacation the week before Samuel starts year-round school (claiming that I didn't tell him this was happening, whatever).  I am very proud of Samuel.  He was pretty nervous about it because the other times he has flown he has had Solomon and Miriam with him.  In addition to that experience, the flight was more than twice as long as the flight from Albuquerque to Denver is aaaaand  his flight was delayed by almost an hour aaaaand  even after his flight "landed" at DIA the plane had to sit on the tarmac for another 45 minutes while the previous plane left its arrival gate.  All of this while he had an enormous stomach ache from eating a crap load of junk food before and during his flight.

Yes, Samuel starts school tomorrow.  You may remember my being flabbergasted when we moved here that the elementary school had not only a 2-week spring break (what, not just a week?!) but also a 2-week fall break (sweet!).  There were also several 4-day weekends incorporated into the calendar.  All of this left that school with just a 2-month summer break.  This is called a 'Transitional Calendar' and it's meant to prepare both students and their parents for the inevitability of that school becoming a year-round school.  This would happen once the population in that region reaches a point where the school simply cannot accommodate all of the students who need to attend at once.  We were notified over a year ago that this coming school year would be year-round and here we are.

It's not such a bad thing, this year-round business.

1)  Our family only has to do it for one year as Samuel is entering the 5th grade and next year he'll attend the middle school which can accommodate more students and operates on a traditional 9-month calendar.

2)  Samuel will get more one-on-one time with either myself or the ex-husband has he has periodic 3-week breaks interspersing his 9-week school attendance periods.  I think we'll all benefit from this.

3)   Samuel's ADHD means that his attending school OR  having too long a break from school translates to extreme boredom and frustration for him, as well as increased frustration for me as we attempt to focus on school work and homework.

Anyway, Samuel is back with me while the other two are in Albuquerque/Houston/in transit to ABQ from Houston/wherever.

Samuel and I have had a fabulous weekend.  We've gotten caught up on snuggling that we missed for a few weeks -- and boy, let me tell you -- this boy needs his snuggles!  (Truth be told, so do I.)  We went with Lance to my co-worker's house yesterday morning to help her with some yardwork and we made some money.  We spent the rest of yesterday resting, eating and refueling after that arduous morning.

This morning we sorted through leftover and still-usable-school supplies to determine what is still needed for school tomorrow.  Then we went shopping for the remainder and packed up that backpack you can see here.  This will be Samuel's 4th year still using that same backpack.  I told him we'll see about buying a new one for middle school next year.  (I cannot believe he's going to middle school in a year!)

 

We've played lots of video games, both separately and together.  Here he is embarking on a new level of Fancy Pants.  Occasionally he asks for my help on something but, let's face it -- a gamer I am not.  More often than not he assigns me to "stand right here, swing your sword and just kill that one spider while I jump on this wall, rappel up to the next level, kill the Rat King and all the other spiders, collect all the stars and advance to the next level."  Ha ha ha!

I'm really only good at Sims 3. I am currently waiting for him to finish up on Fancy Pants so I can get back to my new Sims 3 character and her ambition to become a world-famous international spy.

He almost always stands like this while playing video games.

New Year Update

So, it's 2013.  That shocks me for a lot of reasons.  I remember a writing prompt given to me in fifth grade, years ago.  We were supposed to write about what life would be like in the year 2000.  I was certain we'd have flying cars and humanoid robots doing our household chores, a la Rosey from the Jetsons.  Here we are 13 years after that supposed reality and I'm still doing all the dishes and laundry I can't pass off to the kids.  I do not have a flying car.  Suzy the stupendous Subaru is car enough for me but I can't deny that a flying Suzy would be awesome.

Anyway, it's 2013.  I'm starting another college semester in about 2 weeks.  This time I'm taking some kind of lower level algebra.  I guess it's pre-algebra for college.  I'm also taking a philosophy class.  I took introduction to ethics, which falls under the umbrella of philosophy, last summer.  It was a fun class with interesting lectures.  This time my philosophy class is logic, persuasion and argument or some such business.  I'm looking forward to it.

I read some reviews of my philosophy professor on this site.  He has pretty good ratings.  There is one bad one but the reason this person rated him badly is because he goes off on tangents and tells stories during his lectures.  I think that's awesome, so I'm not counting it against him.  I don't know who my algebra professor is yet so I can't look them up.

I finished last semester with good grades in both biology and its lab and my last English composition class.  I loved those biology courses.  I learned so much and was able to apply a lot of the knowledge I already have to learning the information in that course.  The English course was annoying in that it was a freshman composition class that I've somehow avoided when taking other English classes.  It was pretty basic.  I did have to write a rather lengthy thesis that counted as a third of my grade, but I'm proud of it.

Works is busy.  Good grief, it's busy.  This is a really bad sick season.  There is lots of flu, gastroenteritis, strep, pneumonia, and garden variety upper respiratory viruses.  I'm so tired of hearing the same old symptoms -- which no one can cure -- that I'm having a difficult time not rolling my eyes and telling everyone to just go home, stay hydrated and ride it out with OTC medications.  They expect a doctor to fix them with some kind of magic.  I'm sorry, but when viral symptoms start, it's going to be a few days before you feel better.  Coming to see the doctor doesn't mean you are fixed.  Please do not call us when you're not better tomorrow.  And for Pete's sake, do not come back to the office; you're just going to expose yourself and your kid to whatever else has mutated overnight and is hanging about now.

The kids are doing well.  Miriam is flourishing in middle school.  I'm relieved.  I was nervous about her starting there this year but she's doing just fine.  Solomon is struggling some.  We are trying to cope with ADHD and all the stuff that goes with that.  Solomon is so smart and a hard worker, though.  I know he'll be successful in the end.  Samuel is doing well.  I think we finally have the right combination of therapies at school, medication from the doctor, and IEP accommodations to suit him.

What really pleases me is the broadening of the kids' horizons.  They're offered so many opportunities by living in this area.  They're friends with a wonderful array of kids and they're learning so much about people; they don't even realize it, but I can see it.  We're taking advantage of music and art opportunities that only a city like this can offer.  I recently bought tickets to a ballet performance for the four of us.  I cannot wait and the kids seem pretty excited, too.

Things with Paul are pretty great.  I have the best time with him and I'm so grateful for him.  We've gone to some fantastic events in the last year together -- lots of theater shows, some concerts, a couple of ballets, and we're going to the symphony and to see David Sedaris in the next two weeks.  I'm so excited to experience these things with someone who enjoys them as much as I do.

We've had our share of sad and disturbing things happen.  I'm still bothered by a lot of them on a regular basis.  They cause me anxiety sometimes.  I wish I could change them but the reality is, I can't.  No one can.  It's the bad thing about being in this world.  All of those don't cancel out the wonder that is the rest of our lives.

Waiting for Parent-Teacher Conference

Samuel and I are standing in the hallway outside his classroom waiting to speak with his teacher. We are reading personal narratives written by his peers.

One is called "How I Came to America". It's the story of a classmate who was adopted from China. She talks about her parents adopting her sister and then going again the following year to adopt her. She talks about how their parents chose their names. She talks about celebrating their adoption days.

And now I fear I am too choked up to have a coherent conversation with Samuel's teacher.

Friday Night

This is what it looks like from here. Thanks to a good 20 minutes of chores from each of my children and 45 minutes of decluttering and wiping surfaces from me, we're starting this weekend off on a good note. (Read: clean house. Yay!)

Lasagna that I assembled and froze ahead of time is baking. I'm in my old lady nightgown and I have wine. Samuel is playing video games. Solomon is reading. Miriam is practicing new hairstyles.

Life is good.

Dentist Time!

I took the kids to the dentist today. All three of them. It was just for cleaning and x-rays but I was still mighty anxious. We've had less than stellar dental appointments since they were tiny kids. I was mucho afraid of what we might need to repair, of the bills, of more anxiety.  Ugh.

But I feared for (almost) nothing. Out of three kids and some 48 teeth -- give or take a lost baby tooth -- there is only one cavity. And it's tiny. And in a baby tooth. Yay! Our religious dedication to brushing, flossing, fluoride rinses and much less candy has paid off!

Changing My Parenting

I've never been very big on self-help books or parenting books or anything like that.  They're preachy and condescending and annoying.  I am the authority on me and I don't need someone with a PhD to tell me how to deal with the stuff in my life.  Right?

But then one morning a few weeks ago I had a near-breakdown over not having enough time for breakfast or sleep or homework or to get to school and work on time or to do chores or to relax.  Not enough time for anything.  I yelled at the kids again and they continued to move at their snail's pace and they continued to walk away from their backpacks and jackets instead of picking them up and putting them on.

I have had this terrible thought over the last few weeks that I haven't been teaching my children responsibility.  Rather, I've been teaching them to respond to my yelling and frustration.  I'm talking at them until I'm blue in the face and my blood pressure is 162/98 and they're still forgetting that they need to take a snack to school or that they need to wear gloves when it's 19F outside.  I'm e-mailing their teachers weekly about homework and missed tests and issues with classmates.  I'm not doing them any favors like this.

So right then and there, leaning on the kitchen counter and breathing deeply, I bought "Parenting with Love and Logic" with the Amazon app on my phone.  It was one of those moments when I've just had enough.  Or too much.  I'd had too much and I couldn't take it any more.

When the book arrived I read half of it that same evening.  It's so simple, it's brilliant.  The premise is that kids are adults in training and if you don't treat them like that, they'll eventually become adults -- 'cause that's biology -- that act like kids -- 'cause that is what you brought them up to be.  It's much easier to let kids mess up now than it is to let them loose in the world where messing up means you lose a job or a house or worse.

So I've started stepping back.  I've stopped e-mailing the teachers, I've stopped pushing the homework, I've stopped the reminders about snacks, jackets and bed time.  That's done.

Instead of harping on weather appropriate clothing, I've told the kids what the weather is supposed to be like and let them dress however they think they'll be most comfortable.  If they don't wear snow boots and it snows and they have to walk home in it, they'll likely remember to take their boots next time there is snow in the weather report.

Instead of stressing out over a pre-set bedtime and getting all bent out of shape when it doesn't happen, I've laid out 2 requirements: 1) teeth must be brushed and 2) I don't see or hear any children in this house after 8:30, unless there is an emergency.  If they're exhausted at wake up time, they'll probably decide that getting a little more sleep is wise.

Instead of mediating the spats and the bickering I calmly suggest that they go some where else, together or alone, and deal with it however they think is best.  They're more likely to learn that hearing each other out, sticking up for themselves, making sincere apologies and having some patience work out problems rather well most of the time.

Instead of nagging the kids about leaving their things lying around, I've instituted the nightly sweep.  At 8:00 PM anything that is lying around in the common areas of the house is confiscated and place in the Confiscation Box.  On Sundays the sweep occurs at 5:00 PM and includes bedrooms.  Things that have been confiscated can be earned back by doing a chore.

Some amazing things have happened since all the Insteads were instituted.  The most amazing thing is that the house runs much more smoothly and there is a much lower level of stress for all of us.  I'm not so uptight because I've stopped making the kids' problems into my problems.  They're less stressed because I'm not hassling them all the time.

It's been slow going, but the kids are definitely stepping up and taking responsibility for a lot more things in their daily lives.  The mistakes they have made, while not catastrophic -- let's face it, they're kids -- have been true learning opportunities.  They take ownership of them and they work out some way to fix it, the best they can.  They're more likely to say to me that they messed up because it's no longer my "job" to preach to them about how they should have done things differently.  I listen to them and I ask them how they're going to fix things.  That's it.

This is the simplest and best change I've ever made to our home life.  I love it.

Well, Hello There!

Yes, I'm still in existence, although I think I've forgotten how to blog.  It's been about 2 months, hasn't it?  Ah, well, I have good reasons.  Reasons like moving and finals (in the same week! Egads!), the kids' many end-of-year engagements at school, me starting the summer term, getting accepted to nursing school and then the nursing program shutting down.  (Yes, they really closed it. Grrr.)  So that's what's been up.

First things first -- we got into the new house.  It's awesome.  The open space has become the kids' new favorite place to play.  We have the second (or fourth, depending on how you look at it) unit in a row of 5 so there are neighbors on either side of us.  One of the units is empty and the other has a very quiet, very nice family living in it.  I can only hear them very faintly on the rarest of occasions.  And it's never screaming swear words and such.  I'm growing some flowers in the front yard and trying to grow some vegetables in the back.  Paul and I are planting my herb garden this afternoon.

Speaking of gardening, our massive veggie garden in Paul's backyard is doing quite well.  We have no actual food yet but it's getting there.  And it's a lot of work.  A whole lot of work.  But it's rewarding and we are having a good time with it.  We're also taking notes so we can do this better next year because we have learned a lot in the short time we've been working on this.

The kids have left to spend the summer with the ex-husband and the step-mom.  Solomon has completed elementary school and will be going to middle school next year.  I can't believe it.  Miriam will be in her last year of elementary school next year and Samuel will be half way through, in the third grade.  It's shocking that this has happened so fast.  I swear, just a few days ago I was changing their diapers and sitting through marathon nursing sessions.

I finished microbiology with an A.  Woot!  That turned out to be a really fun class.  My professor was terrific and our experiments were a lot of fun.  My unknown specimen was Proteus vulgaris.  At least, it was, until it became contaminated with something else (I suspect E. coli since all three of my lab partners all had E. coli.  Someone -- maybe even myself -- was not perfect with their sterilization technique.) and messed up my last few test results.  No worries, though because the professor said that happens in all her classes to someone.  Our grade was not based on maintaining a pure sample, but rather on testing appropriately and demonstrating that we knew why tests were performed and what the results meant.

And algebra ... well, I'd rather not talk about that.  We'll just say that I ended up passing but I hated every single second of it and I'm not proud of my grade at all.

Nursing school in general is a huge mess and I'm still trying to sort out how to reach my goal.  It's all being reworked and will probably take a very long time.  Ugh.

So that's what's going on here.  I'll try to keep up better for the rest of the summer.

On Growing Up

Remember this?  A few weeks ago I was in a hurry to get the kids off to bed and I forgot to do the official tucking in routine with Miriam.  I tucked her in but didn't do the multiple kisses or ask her what she wanted to dream about.  The next night she told me that I had forgotten the night before.  I apologized and did it twice that night to make it up to her.  It warmed my heart that that still means so much to her and I've made certain not to forget it again, no matter how harried bedtime might be.

Also recently, Solomon came into my room around 4:00 am to tell me he had been awake for a while and couldn't get back to sleep. I suggested trying a relaxation technique where he imagines he's on a warm beach with the sound of waves on the sand and birds singing and the smell of fruit and tropical flowers in the air.  He said he'd tried that.  So I invited him to come lie down with me.  He gave me an odd look and seemed hesitant but he laid down -- on the very edge of the bed, with barely a scrap of blanket and a corner of a pillow.  I giggled inwardly and lay back down myself.  In less than 15 minutes he was completely out and had repositioned himself comfortably with a hand in my face and a knee in my belly.  When the alarm went off 2 hours later he succumbed to a few minutes of snuggling and didn't flinch at all.

Samuel, on the other hand, isn't shy at all about snuggling, even in public.  That kid will happily plop himself onto my lap in the doctor's office waiting room, in a restaurant and even at school!  He always wants to hold my hand and he's constantly trying to sniff me or twiddle his fingers in my hair.  He would sleep in my bed every single night if he thought I'd let him get away with it.  It would be annoying if I thought he was going to continue this for the next 12 years.  But I know he won't so I bask in it and love him right back.

Too Crazy to Pass Up

Look what I found in the dryer this weekend when I washed a load of jeans.

As nearly as I can tell it's part of a traffic cone.  Also, my mouse is a regular sized mouse, not one of those miniature ones.

Last Post re: Samuel's Pockets (Maybe)

I decided to document the growing pile of crap on the top of the dryer.  If you can't stop the madness you might as well join in, right?  So every week after I did a round of laundry, I photographed the pile of stuff and captured the new additions.  Here they are, in order.

Here we have some pebbles, a Starburst wrapper, an arm from an action figure, staples and some other unidentifiable stuff.

This week we added some silly bands, a weird bolt/screw thing and a bobby pin.

This time we found a dollar!  It was quickly reclaimed.  There are also a hair clip, part of a broken earring, a day-glo spider, a tiny bubble wand and more pebbles.

More of the same.

This week we added the remnants of a busted balloon animal, beads and more pennies and pebbles.  

How does one kid find, become attached to, and collect so much crap?

In a Blogging Mood

I'm in the mood to write.  My house is clean, the laundry is (mostly) done.  (There's a large basket that needs folding but I'm going to ignore that.) A really funny episode of The Office is on.  I lit approximately 17 candles around the house and they smell incredible.  I have a glass of decent merlot at my hand. There's a formerly happy chicken defrosting in my kitchen; it'll soon be roasted and made into chicken pot pie.  It's fall and I'm fortunate to have a comfortable, warm, well-stocked home.  For some reason I feel the need to describe all of this to you.

Also:

• Solomon lost a tooth today.  It's the first tooth he's lost in at least 2 years.  I know he hasn't lost one since we moved to Colorado.  I told him that he should check under his pillow tomorrow for the Tooth Fairy's prize.  He said, "Can you just give me the money now?  Like you're buying my tooth?"  So I did.  And I laughed heartily.
• I took Solomon to the doctor today because he's had increasingly worse heel pain in the last few days.  Instead of being something worrisome, it's just inflammation that happens sometimes in kids who are growing and healthy and active.  He should be fine in a couple of weeks.  I'm grateful for all of this.
• I'm taking the Spanish placement test tomorrow so I can register for not-Spanish I next week.
• I bought lots of bulk spices today for less than $1.00.  Total.  Not each.  Total.
• I saw my endo today for a post-op appointment.  Everything is good.  Assuming my thyroid panel is all normal I'll see her again in 6 months and if the thyroid panel then is all normal and if I never have any weird thyroid symptoms, I'll never see her again.  She's a nice person and all but this makes me happy.  She said I was her easiest patient all day.

And that's all for now.  I should probably have made some of these items separate blog posts but I didn't.  That's how I roll.  I reserve the right to elaborate upon any, all or none of these items in the future.  That's also how I roll.  (You know, until now I didn't know I 'rolled' at all.  That just came out of no where.  Apparently I roll that way, too.)

Poor Little Buddy

Samuel has recently become engrossed in a game called Spore.  I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's similar to TheSims in that you create a being and live as that being until you die.  In Spore, the main difference is that you also evolve.  Your character begins life as a single-celled organism that moves about eating other organisms and growing appendages and adapting to its watery surroundings until it can live on land with the other legged creatures.

Well, Samuel began a civilization a few weeks before the kids left for their fall break.  Tonight he went back to his saved game and continued playing for a while.  When he and I went into the bathroom to work on his teeth cleaning routine he told me that his character's buddy had died.  His little creature was living in a nest with another similar creature and the two of them went off to conquer a band of other creatures.  During the fighting his buddy was mortally wounded.  He seemed a little sad when he told me this but he quickly rebounded and said, "It's okay, though.  I'll find another buddy," and that was that.  Conversation moved on.

About 20 minutes ago Solomon came to me and said that Samuel was in bed, crying.  I went to find out what was wrong.  He was sobbing really hard and couldn't talk.  I asked a bunch of questions and finally surmised that he was crying over the loss of his creature's buddy.  Poor little dude.  I feel so bad for him.  And at the same time I can't help giggling a little to myself because it's kind of silly, too, you know?

Also, it reminded me of my own brush with virtual mortality.

When I Grow Up ...

Around the dinner table tonight, we got on the topic of future plans for making a living.  It comes up every once in a while and I'm always interested to hear what the kids have sprouting in their imaginations.  Miriam said she wants to be a teacher, probably an art teacher.  Samuel wants to be an artist or an inventor.  Solomon wants to be a scientist or a veterinarian or an astronaut or something else that I can't remember at the moment.  That boy thinks big, and I do mean BIG.

I don't know if I gave enough thought to the "When I grow up ..." stuff when I was a kid and I want to encourage my children to think about it a lot. I want them to feel confident that they can do whatever they want to do.  I want them to explore different ideas and dreams.  I want them to pick the most satisfying and fulfilling one they can.  I want them to know that it's going to be difficult, that it will take a lot of hard work and discipline and determination. I don't want that to be a surprise to them.

I'm glad they're seeing me in school. I hope to be an inspiration to them in their future endeavors. I also want to be an example of how not to do things: for example, finish school before you move on to having children. Because both things are very hard to do, but they're exponentially more difficult when you're doing them both at the same time.

When I grow up, I'm going to have raise 3 amazing human beings.

The Best Days

Sometimes The Best Days are extravagant, phenomenal, mesmerizing events filled with roller coasters and cotton candy and fireworks.  Sometimes The Best Days are quiet, relaxing, comfortable times spent cuddling on the couch and eating comfort foods while watching movies.  And sometimes The Best Days are ordinary ones where not much really happens.  Not much happens except the magic of your baby learning about venus fly traps and telling you all about it with the brightest, biggest, shiniest smile on his face.  Where not much happens other than catching your shy daughter singing along to this song.  Ones where you walk your kids to school and see that the P.E. teacher needs help setting up for running club, and your eldest, your first baby, your all-too-soon-an-adult child is the first to volunteer his help to her.  Sometimes those are The Best Days.