groundspeed

January Thankfulness

I've been slowly reading, unpacking One Thousand Gifts. When I finish it, I plan to turn back to the beginning and start over. And, of course, I've been keeping my list.

Appreciating.

Practicing thanks.

A few from January...

13. Turning the heat on for the first time this winter.

14. Best honeybell orange ever.

17. In birthday phone conversation with my dad, he asked if I have any gray hairs yet. This was a joke. At 66 my dad has very little gray and he very well knows that at 34 I have none.

24. Men in pink tutus.

27. The smell of oregano.

32. Andrew Peterson our morning routine soundtrack.

38. Uno game before bed. Blue's too-little hands dropping cards.

40. Another safe flying day for Kevin (and all of MFI).

43. Toby high-fiving a big black guy in a restaurant.

44. Poppy! In a play!

49. Animated book group.

52. Ms. Agi always waiting for Blue with hugs.

54. Soft butt landings after 4 ft tree falls. (Blue)

58. The word "guppy." It makes Toby giggle.

61. A conversation with Blue in the car about aliens and bug eating and doing puzzles in space.

64. Morning tea.

67. Brothers. I get to raise brothers.

Cookie Helper

Saturday morning Kevin went van shopping and took Kaden. (We have been actively looking all month, hoping to make a decision um, by today.)  Meanwhile Blue, Toby, and I had zero plans. Zip. Nodda.

Then Blue decided we needed to make cookies. 

Of course he did.

So we got out our fancy cookie cook book (I've had it for years and this may have been the first time I've used it. Usually we're just chocolate chip fans.) and chose a glazed pumpkin thing.

I've said before that I'm not big into these kinds of projects with kids, but I was good about talking him through the ingredients and the measuring and mixing. When it came time to pipe the batter onto the pan, it was a little too thick and tough so this pic is all staged, but seriously I let him help. Not just you know, stand in the kitchen and watch. 

They turned out cute enough. Next time I'll go back to chocolate chip, but the boys like them Blue and Kaden got in trouble for eating HALF THE PLATE while Kevin and I were distracted by our talk about vans.

Grrrrrrr.

(At least they have pumpkin in 'em, so they were eating their veggies, right?)

Vocabulary Parade

Friday Kaden's school had a vocabulary parade. Each kid had to choose a word from their class vocab list and somehow dress up as their word. They then proceeded to march around the school, single file. Twice. They didn't do all the grades at once. I think Kaden's parade was K-2, but I know the older grades dis it too because I talked to the mom of a 4th grader.

We chose "lure."

Kaden and I talked about what would be a good thing to use to lure kids and teachers to him.

We decided on candy and money.

The only rules were that they had to have their word on a sign somewhere and that they had to stay in dress code during the day.  I made a sign that Kaden colored. (I actually found two free fishing lure fonts. I only ended up using one and only for the first letter because it seemed too busy but TWO free fishing lure fonts?! The internet is a crazy place.)

Then I found images of 100 bills and Twix, Snickers, and Skittles. I enlarged 'em and printed enough so everything could be two-sided and then had Kaden cut and paste.

We assembled a fishing pole out of a stick and some raffia.

All assembled and posing before school:

Then later in the day at school:

Here they come!

Some cutie parade watchers.

Here come "lure" and "combat."

He was supposed to hold it out like a fishing pole and dangle his lure. Instead he paraded with his stick as his staff. Oh well. I tried.

Some other cute ones we saw were:

Glider - boy wearing glider wings, his word spelled across them

Observe - a girl holding a giant magnifying lens made out of poster board, wearing a sign with eyes all around her word.

Drizzle - boy wearing a clear poncho with giant blue raindrops taped all over it.

Fun idea and I'm told this is an annual event, so probably the first of many. Especially since Blue should be there next year too!

Ice Cream! For Breakfast!

Well. Kinda sorta.

Yesterday, after their usual bowl of yogurt with cereal sprinkled on top, the boys were served this:

I told the boys it was ice cream and they believed it. Really, it was more like a really thick smoothie.

What you need: Three to four good sized bananas. I only had three small bananas and after I served the boys it didn't make enough for me to get any more than what I could scrape off the sides of my blender! A heaping tablespoon of peanut butter.  A teaspoon of cocoa.

What to do: Slice bananas into inch pieces and freeze. Place frozen bananas pieces into blender and blend. I had to use the ice button on my blender. Original recipe warned you'll have to scrape down off sides a bunch and it will look gritty quite awhile before smoothing out. I have a high powered super duper blender so it only looked gritty the first minute or so and I only had to scrape down once.  Once it begins to look creamy add pb and cocoa and blend some more.  Serve!

Nobody Likes a Wet Dog

In highschool and undergrad I had equal love for poetry and prose. And then, like the rest of the world, I turned my back to poetry. 

Even so, when I taught at LeTourneau, a sort of basic intro to the genres class, I loved watching people who claimed to hate and not understand poetry come awake to it when we got to that section.

One of the poems I always taught was Dharma by Billy Collins.  

It's funny. It's accessible. It's about a dog.

Billy Collins was one of the presenting authors at this year's Key West Literary Seminar and he read another dog poem, a poem that came to mind this morning.

The skies opened up and I saw my dog not taking shelter under our covered patio but walking out in the grass, sniffing and licking at small pools of water, and I thought of the Collin's poem, "To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now."

My first thought was stupid dog, but my second went to poetry. And it's nice to think of poetry in the morning.

Taken from inside my house through the sliding glass door, because, unlike my dog, I had no desire to play in the rain this morning. 

So here's that poem:

To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now
Billy Collins 

Nobody here likes a wet dog.
No one wants anything to do with a dog
that is wet from being out in the rain
or retrieving a stick from a lake.
Look how she wanders around the crowded pub tonight
going from one person to another
hoping for a pat on the head, a rub behind the ears,
something that could be given with one hand
without even wrinkling the conversation.

But everyone pushes her away,
some with a knee, others with the sole of a boot.
Even the children, who don’t realize she is wet
until they go to pet her,
push her away,
then wipe their hands on their clothes.
And whenever she heads toward me,
I show her my palm, and she turns aside.

O stranger of the future!
O inconceivable being!
whatever the shape of your house,
however you scoot from place to place,
no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you
may wear,
I bet nobody there likes a wet dog either.
I bet everybody in your pub,
even the children, pushes her away. 

New Play-Doh

Today we finally busted into a big box of new play-doh the boys got for Christmas.

 

I procrastinated the play-doh playtime because these two are just as likely to eat it as they are to play with it. But I once I get it all out, I have my own fun too.

And it's so awesome to have new, bright non-mixed-together colors.

At least for the first five seconds.

Marriage Conference and Monster Trucks

A four-day, kid-free trip to Key West - great for a marriage.

A Friday night and all day Saturday, kid-free marriage conference at church - great for a marriage.

The dream I had last night where Kevin failed to make a reservation at the restaurant where I wanted to eat and then acted pissy with me when we ended up at McDonald's - not so great for a marriage. I mean, I'm well into the day after, and I still get annoyed when I think about it.

Emotions. So fickle.

And that connects to monster trucks how?

My mom watched the boys when we went to The Keys but this past weekend our church was hosting a marriage conference we wanted to attend. We weren't about to hit my mom up for extended babysitting so soon. Instead, Kevin parents came over from Tampa. For their long stretch on Saturday we planned a few activities. In the morning Gran brought Toby to My Gym* for the free play hour and Papa made Monster Trucks with the big boys. 

My brother works at Lowes so he collected a ton of the kids-build projects and passed them on to my boys this Christmas. We've been so busy that this was their first go at one of them.

The trucks even have a light that lights up on top. Totally cool. Totally great Gran and Papa time for the boys.

*When I take Toby to My Gym for free play, most of the time he just sits on me and watches the other kids play. When Kevin or Gran take Toby he's off and playing. His class teacher was there this Saturdy and even commented about it. It stinks that I'm so cool, huh? 

One Tree

No school today. Teacher planning. And we've been stuck home all day. First, waiting for the cable guy and then hanging out while the cable guy was here for FOUR HOURS. (And it's still not done.)

For the bulk of the morning waiting we played outside.

Like most suburban homes we don't have trees. We've landscaped the front so we have short palms there but in the back there's pretty much nothing.  I say pretty much because there is one small scrub oak. And today, after living here for about a year and half, the boys discovered that this tree was good for something other than a pee target.

Yes, they pee on the tree.

But today Blue squirreled his way up into the tree. That's Kaden and Toby standing at the bottom wondering what happened to their brother... 

Oh. There he is!

It took him a long time to figure it out, but finally Kaden got up there too. Then the boys asked for bananas. It was as though being in a tree brought out their inner monkeys. Whatever. I got them each a banana to snack on while in the tree.

Meanwhile Toby went back to the sand box and aquired a beard. I let him keep it for awhile even after he came inside.

These boys. So talented.

A Touch of Valentine

Last night I got out my few Valentine's things after the boys went to bed and what does Blue comment on in the morning? A new bar of a soap I put in the boy's bathroom. Not only did he act excited about this new bar of soap he called Kaden over to see it too. (Who had the appropriate reaction - Um, it's just soap.) I mean, it's not even an exciting scent or color.

We don't have a mantel.  Duh, it's Florida.  Well, I say that but both my mom and mother-in-law have decorative mantels (no fireplaces, just mantels). Instead of a mantel for displaying knickknacks I have this piece of furniture:

My favorite thing I put out is this Valentines picture collage I put together last year.


So this stuff plus Valentines placemats on the table, plus a small Valentine towel in the guest bath and Valentines dish towels in the kitchen. Not exciting but still more interesting than a bar of soap.

Thanks to the kids underwhelmed response I got busy on some heart garland today. A long strand in the kitchen, four hanging in front of the dining room window and more wrapped around the dining room light.

Thank you pinterest for the idea to make heart garland using the different colors you can collect from a paint samples stand in Home Depot or somewhere - so that's what the long one is.  But since the color isn't on both sides I had to glue hearts together (because it turns) and that was extra work. All the other garlands are hearts punched from scrapbook paper I already had where the color is the same on both sides.

As I was hanging things Toby went into the cabinets where I keep all the kids art supplies, got out a coloring book and one orange crayon, brought it to the table, climbed up in a chair, and started coloring.

Um, my baby is acting entirely too big and independent.

Blue decided this was a good idea, got some more crayons, and joined him.

Right under my nose and zero comments on the heart garland. Well, Blue was excited when I stood on the table to put the garland on the light but his comment had nothing to do with the garland just the Mommy table standing. (Because I don't want him to copy this behavior, I told him I was NOT in fact standing on the table. He was imagining it. Think that'll work?)

I saw lots of centerpiece ideas online that use heart candy. I bet THAT would get their attention.

Hunt and Peck

Here's Toby practicing his typing skills at Poppy's house. Note the color of the wall. That's why when we go to visit Poppy we say, "We're going to the green house!"