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Time alone.

I had scheduled lunch with one of my farmer friends (she provides part of my CSA as well as some awesome granola) for Wednesday before the guys decided to leave for their camping a day late. This meant that I actually left the house before they did. I took Pook to pick up his glasses at Costco (and saw some Legal Seafood clam chowder which I had to buy for my dinner) and came back to turn him over to his dad (with exclamations of both "Wow, it isn't fuzzy" and "I don't want to wear them all the time"). Then I gave out kisses and I left.

When I came home, it was eerily quiet. And a mess with all the odds and ends they'd not packed and the toys the boys had played with while CD fit it all into the car. Remembering my mom's advice (my dad took me and Sister MD camping and she'd spent the first day cleaning so she could relax the second day, but it rained so badly my dad came home a day early), I promptly went to work reading outside in the sun. After two chapters I decided to drive to the elementary school to transplant the rose I'd dug up to give them a month ago. It was odd to be at the school right at dismissal time, with no dismissal. The rose will look better there than with it's color (violet) clashing in my yard (the remaining roses are redish pink).

I continued my task of relaxing back at home, and also found myself filing away photos I'd taken from summer to Christmas at the same time. Suddenly I was hungry and it was 6:30. I heated my chowder (One serving size was only one cup of soup. Ha!) and took the remote to the sofa. I watched a repeat of my Seattle based medical show, then popped in my movie, A Good Year with Russell Crowe. Yawning on cue at 10:30, I located a comforter that hadn't been packed (Pook's) and went to bed, fortunately too tired to feel lonely.

I slept until after 8am, and did some yoga before breakfast. The kids hadn't seen the strawberries in the fridge, so I topped some granola with vanilla yogurt and berries and finished the extra behind-the-scenes bits of the dvd.

It was almost 11am before I was ready to head out for shoe shopping. I bought two pairs, neither what I'd have bought if my criteria were style before comfort, but both acceptable and both returnable (REI will take them back w/in two weeks even if worn outside and The Walking Company will take them back within a month if worn indoors). I didn't do any additional shopping since my wallet was cringing at the price of the sandals already. Good shoes are expensive! I'm used to cheap, replaceable shoes in the $30 range.

I took my book, Wuthering Heights, (Heathcliff has just returned, an adult) outdoors for lunch. I'd bought some yummy cheeses and I ate Brie, Jarlsberg and Munster with crackers and grapes while I read. There was a lot of action to observe. Someone or something has disturbed our carrot seedlings, but the few left are showing carroty-looking leaves. I watched as a chipmunk climbed deftly into my squirrel-proof feeder to snack. Mr. Bird Brain saw me outside, but continued his brain bashing unabashedly. A chickadee has a nest in a hand painted birdhouse that the kids painted two years ago. I was going to take it down to repair it before the bottom fell out, but then saw that it was occupied. If she doesn't care, I don't either. Nests abound. We removed one from the new garage door motor box just Sunday. Maybe I'll sprinkle the coneflower, black eyed Susan and alyssum seeds around today too. I hope we've had the last of the cold.

I actually started to get hot outside, so it seemed time to come in and be productive, briefly. The fish tank was happy with my decision. I always think about cleaning it for a week before someone dies and only when they go floating do I get around to it. Today was no exception, and a fish is now fertilizing my thyme plant (and another has been nibbled on and will go soon). I watered with the fish-poop water outdoors and with less smelly water indoors.

I'm meeting L, the other non-camping mom, for dinner tonight at a restaurant neither of us has visited but which has a patio which called to her when she drove past it. It should be nice enough to sit outdoors at least for drinks. Tomorrow morning I'll go to Old Folks Yoga (I'm going to call it that in front of someone sometime and be sorry) and then I expect my guys home.

I've done well with this unproductive time.

tent camping in the arctic

It is snowing. We noticed it when suddenly the sun came out and drew our attention to the window.

The temps in Georgia are supposed to be incredibly low this week. The boys postponed their trip to avoid the predicted freeze Tuesday but tonight is supposed to be below forty still. I can hear the whining now as they get up and have to climb out of their sleeping bags. Or bag, since I'm betting they climb in with their dad to stay warm.

I haven't helped much with the preparations for this trip. I asked for a grocery list and I bought exactly what they requested (including food for three breakfasts for two mornings...) I will offer up any warm blankets they want (probably all of them). I washed all the dirty laundry they had.

Bug is concerned that I won't get to roast marshmallows with them. I'm concerned that CD will be out of his mind when they return, exhausted from no sleep and coping with tired and cold kids.

camping and shopping and sleeping (pick two)

It is Spring Break. The boys are going camping for two nights with two friends and the dads. Two nights. That seems interesting enough, but then I realized that also means two days. I'm going out to dinner one night with the mom of the other kids, as she, too, celebrates some independence. But she works days, so won't be free to play with me the rest of the time. I'm not really sure what to do with myself. Two days here in the house with no kids. No carpools to drive. No arguments to break up. No cooking required of me. No laundry.

I'm thinking of painting the kitchen or building a retaining wall around one of my new azaleas. Both of those are things I actually want to do, and both need to be done. But somehow this feels like the wrong time for them. Productivity is the norm of my days. This is an unusual, probably one-time opportunity. I almost have a responsibility to be unproductive.

Instead, I think I'm going to do some shoe shopping. Right now I have only two pairs I can comfortably wear and it just isn't cutting it. I've got a running shoe which I never used to wear except to go to the gym. Now I hang out in them all the time. I also bought an expensive but good pair of black clogs which I've been living in. I tried a cute, expensive, and supposedly supportive shoe which would have bridged the seasons well, but doesn't seem to accommodate both me and the orthotic I'm now wearing regularly. I'm not sure what type of sandal I can wear with the insert either, but there must be something. I'm a barefoot person in the summers, or at least I used to be and wish I was still allowed. On doctor's orders, I am not to walk around barefoot.

So. Shoe shopping. Dinner with a friend. Lunch with a friend. Cuddling on my sofa with a good book and a cup of tea. In preparation, I have ordered a chick-flick to watch, and cracked open Wuthering Heights.

family rules

Here are some of our family's rules (in no particular order):

1. no whining before breakfast
2. don't wake Mama (unless there is blood or fire)
3. be dressed for school before breakfast
   
4. tell me about the wet bed in the morning
5. no lego before breakfast or at bedtime
6. don't wear navy blue with black
7. never bother Mama when she's making a quiche
8. taste everything
9. don't hit your brother, even if I can't see you
10. seatbelts before toys

piano lessons

Bug to his carpool buddy: "I'm going to take piano lessons. I already know how to play though. Mostly I play classical." (12/08)


After much delay, we have started Bug in piano lessons. It'll be a busy spring with t-ball too. I'm usually a strong enforcer of the one-activity-at-a-time rule. However, piano counts as academic, and I'm letting Pook do chess club for that reason (same day and time for the chess and piano which might help.)

He will be her youngest pupil. She was a bit reluctant to start him, so I'm crossing my fingers that his enthusiasm will be contagious. He's so close to being able to read that he'll learn to read music and words simultaneously.

He's been asking to play for ages. Pook, while he enjoys good music, was never interested in piano lessons, but Bug has always wanted to play some type of music. He's really aiming for the tuba, possibly a trombone or trumpet, maybe even a string bass, but he's accepted that piano is the way to start. "When I'm really big, like in fourth grade, I can play another instrument." The county starts kids with musical instruments at school early, which is great. I have a few years yet to soundproof a room.

He got adjusted on the piano bench and was introduced to oreo cookies first. He was asked to find all the cookies and to touch the frosting. (pairs of black keys with the D in between). Then she introduced the C Family: Mother C in the middle with Father C and Brother C and their lower voices, and Sister C and Baby C who have higher voices. He found them, labeled them and played them up and down a few times. Then she introduced the neighbors, the G Family. He met Grandmother G, Grandfather G, Top G who stands on her head and Bottom Line G. (He didn't find out why Bottom Line G has his name yet). She gave him little cards with the family members drawn out so he could place them on our piano at home. And 45 minutes were up!

He was a bit wiggly and had to be asked to pay attention several times, but it wasn't a problem. We'll see if it improves as he gets used to the room and sights, or if he gets comfortable around her and more wiggly. He was told to practice twice a day for now, just finding the families and playing them up and down and mixed up.

Practice. Not good. I got him to the piano once pretty easily, but only for a few minutes. The second time was edging into bribe territory, which bothers me. Either he does this or he doesn't, but I don't want to have something else to fuss at him to do. Getting the kid dressed and out the door involves enough fussing around here. He still brings home "homework" from his school although I quit having him do it after the winter holidays. It isn't required, he knows his letters and numbers (although the writing of them would have been useful) but I was just so tired of the fussing. Next year in kindergarten homework won't be optional anymore. So, Internet. Anyone have suggestions for making required piano practice pleasant?