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Kid Packing

By / July 7, 2004 / 13 Comments

I’m hitting the road again tomorrow. Howard can’t spare the time from work or Schlock and so I’m driving 4 kids 5 hours to Boise without adult assistance. I’m fairly certain there will be moments during the journey where I question the sanity of the endeavor. I’m also fairly certain that we’ll survive the experience.

The kids are all in favor of this trip. They get to go and see cousins. Link in particular has been excited. He’s spent all evening packing up his stuff. He approached packing with his typical 6-year-old creativity. His original plan dispensed with suitcases entirely. He had all his clothes and pajamas laid out. He intended to put them on in layers. Pajamas, clothes, pajamas, clothes. . . Then when it was time for bed he could just strip off the clothes and be already in pajamas. Morning time? Strip off another layer. Ta da!

He was so pleased with his brilliant plan that I kind of hated to burst the bubble. I pointed out that all the layers of clothes would make him really hot and that we could just put the extra clothes in a suitcase. His response was simply “Oh” but the expression and tone of voice conveyed that this solution hadn’t even occured to him.

Link then filled his school backpack with clothing. He then filled his other backpack with clothing. Since he still had shoes that wouldn’t fit he hauled out his great big duffel bag suitcase and put the shoes into that. Two small, stuffed backpacks and a huge, mostly empty duffel. He was ready. At my sugguestion, all of the clothes got moved into the duffel, one backpack was put away and the other was filled with toys for during the drive. Finally a packing solution that we’re both happy with.

Gleek packed by pulling out her duffel and emptying the entire contents of her dresser into it. (Patches clothes too.) All done!

Kiki carefully selected clothes based on some obscure criteria (whether the matched or not had nothing to do with selection). The clothes were placed in neat little bundles in her duffel along with her blanket, her alarm clock, half the books we own, and probably the kitchen sink for all I know. She’s going to have to haul that thing by herself.

In theory they’ll eventually be able to pack for themselves without providing me with amusment. For now I get to have funny with my packing stress.

Drug Benefits

By / July 7, 2004 / 4 Comments

I really understand the temptation to drug children for convenience sake.  Last night was one of those nights.  3 out of 4 kids awake between the hours of midnight and 2 am.  Two of the kids with worrisome illnesses which had me mentally prepping for emergency room visits.  By morning all was well, or at least recognizably settled into colds rather than more serious illnesses.  Gleek’s cough was still croupy though so I gave her some cough syrup to try to decongest her.

An hour later she’d reached that wide-eyed loopy state that makes drugged people so amusing.  I had to go get blood drawn for a test on me, Gleek had to come along for the trip.  She sat quietly in the chair next to me blankly staring at walls.  The person taking my insurance information turned to Gleek and said “Wow, you’re such a lady!”  I was really really tempted to answer “Yeah, it’s cause I drugged her.”  Usually the commentary I get about Gleeks behavior are along the lines of “Wow, she’s really active.” Or “You certainly have your hands full!” Or wordless gasps of dismay as Gleek engages in acrobatics that should surely end in injury or death but somehow never do.  “Docile” is not usually in Gleeks behavioral repetoire.

Yet, docile is the best word to describe Gleek during that lab visit. It was the most pleasant Errands-while-herding-Gleek I’ve ever had.  She walked holding my hand, when I stopped, she did too.  When I sat, she quietly sat next to me.  Hence the temptation.  Fortunately I understand that parenting isn’t about convenience.  The point of parenting is to nurture the development of the children.  Drugged children simply exist, they don’t develop and they don’t glow with joy.  Gleek is very very good at joy which is one of the reasons why I can put up with all the mad and contrary.

After the blood draw we returned to the car and Gleek crashed into a nap.  She awoke back to normal and all in all, I’m glad for that.

Archiving

By / July 5, 2004 / 8 Comments

I’ve just been perusing old journal entries and pondering the fact that having them exist only on someone else’s server makes me nervous. I don’t want a server crash to destroy them. Does anyone know of a way to easily archive Journals and commentary into a file so I can save them on my own computer? I can cut and paste into Microsoft Word, but it is tedious.

Peter Pan

By / July 4, 2004 / 8 Comments

This eveing I sat down and watched the live actor version of Peter Pan which came out last year.  The kids had never seen it before and neither had I.  The kids loved it.  Kiki and Link were entranced and giggling through the whole movie.  Gleek watched the first bit where Peter and the other kids fly and then spent the rest of the evening jumping off of furniture.  Patches was just glad to have everyone in the same place where he could climb on everyone equally.

I enjoyed the movie.  I can see why my kids love it.  But the movie makers got it wrong.  Most interpretations of Peter Pan get it “wrong”.  I’ve read the book.  It isn’t about Growing Up, it’s about being a kid.  Growing up is that little bit at the end where you have to step out of the stories and magic to pass them on to your children.

Peter is the quintessential child.  He is charming and spontaneous and mystifying and thoughtless and cruel and mischeivious.  He is younger than all the movies depict as well.  Every version I’ve ever seen shows him on the edge of puberty, the largest of the lost boys.  In the book he still has all his baby teeth.  He acts like a 6-7 year old. 

The movies are magical and each has it’s own message.  I especially enjoyed Hook with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman.  But for me none of the movies truly capture the magic contained in the book.

List of dreams

By / January 24, 2013 / 3 Comments

See some of Europe
Learn to play piano
Create a garden refuge in my backyard
Learn to draw/paint portraits
Decorate all the rooms in my house
Write stories
Get back to 120 lbs
Make myself a couture dress
Climb to the top of Mount Timpanogos
Go birdwatching in a tropical country
Go tidepooling again

Fractured Concentration

By / July 3, 2004

I think one of the hardest things about full time mommying is not having solid chunks of time to lose myself in projects. I do have chunks of time ranging from 10 minutes to an hour or more, but I can never predict when they will come or how long they will last. Many times I don’t start a project because I don’t expect to have uninterrupted time and the kids leave me alone for an hour. Even more frustrating is when I expect to have time to myself and then don’t. And then there is the whole concept of “free” time at all. There are ALWAYS house chores to be done. Any time I do something just for me it is because I’m actively ignoring between 3 and 20 other things I could be doing. (4 of the things are usually children)

As an example, during this entry so far, I’ve had three conversations with children. Not conducive to maintaining a flowing stream of thought.

There is joy in giving something my whole concentration. In being able to completely shut down the Mommy Radar and just read, or write, or garden, or scrapbook. People whose children have grown and left the nest tell me “enjoy them now, they’ll be gone so soon!” And I know they’re right. And I do enjoy them, lots. But there are moments when I really look forward to the opportunity to miss my little kids. Someday I’ll get to look at someone ELSE running around with small kids while I get to sit and relax and be nostalgic.

Date in the Afternoon

By / July 1, 2004 / 3 Comments

I got to see Spiderman 2 today. Great movie. There aren’t many summer blockbusters that make me cry and have me walking away from the theater really happy.

Even better I got to go see it with Howard on a real date. It’s been a long time since we’ve scheduled an event, hired a babysitter, and gotten out of the house in the same vehicle together. Most of our “dates” tend to be the “put the kids to bed and rent a movie” kind.

We showed up at the theater a little more than an hour early. In fact the theater wasn’t even officially open yet. We figured this out by walking into the theater, past multiple employees, up the the ticket stand, finding no one there, and enquiring who was taking tickets. Not once did anyone accost us or tell us that we should wait outside the building please. Then we sat down in the lobby area and watched the pop-corn making employees. None of them seemed to think that we were their responsibility. Not even the man with the keys who walked past us three times. I found it extremely amusing.

Knowing we were headed for the movie early I’d brought a book along. I didn’t have to open it. Howard and I had too much fun just talking about stuff and making fun of movie slides. Almost 11 years married and we still make each other laugh. That’s a good sign I think.

yardfull

By / June 30, 2004 / 1 Comment

Yesterday was a perfect day for being outside. The sky was overcast and breezy so the temperatures stayed comfortable all day long. Such days are rare in the middle of summer, so my kids and I took full advantage. I cut chores a little short so that we could all get out front and ride bikes.

Since I don’t actually have a bike and Patches is too young for one, we just played chalk and No Street. The other three kids had a blast. Even better, they met up with three kids from around the corner and abandoned bike riding for sword games.

The excitment moved into the backyard where I was able to relax my vigilance of Patches and actually do some gardening while the kids ran around yelling at the top of their lungs. My yard has been sadly neglected over the last 4 years and so I’m in the process of reclaiming it from the jungle of weeds. I’ve enlisted the aid of chemical weapons otherwise I’d lose the battle. I love the stuff that I can spray all over my flowerbeds and then the grass in them dies. Just the grass, the flowers thrive. Wonderful.

I wish there was stuff like that for Bindweed. As it is I’m stuck pulling the bindweed out by hand. It isn’t too hard except in the rosebed. Those stupid rose bushes keep attacking me, don’t they know I’m trying to help them? No. They’d rather stay smothered by bindweed I guess. One of them has already sacrificed its life for it’s principles. I’ll have to remove it with a shovel. Oh well. One less rose bush to tend.

The best part of the day came in the evening. The kids were over by the playset tying each other up with rope and I took a moment to just sit on the grass and look around my yard. It wasn’t the look of “what should I work on next” or “Gah THAT still needs done.” It was just a moment of serenity. I just sat there and enjoyed the fact that I have a yard. I enjoyed the greenness of it and the feel of the breeze. I even lay on my back and watched clouds pass in the sky. It has been far, far too long since I’ve done anything like that. It was a beautiful day.

Parenting by Video Game

By / June 28, 2004 / 25 Comments

This morning as I was doing some housework I entertained myself by listening to my children pretending to be Pokemon trainers. I started thinking about the significant role that video games have played in my children’s lives. I know that many parents are of the “video games are evil” school of thought. Link’s kindergarten teacher certainly was. She told me that video games have no value whatsoever and she repeatedly expressed concern over Link’s “obsession” with video games because he was constantly drawing Mario and Luigi on his school papers.

I don’t agree with Link’s teacher. Video games DO have value and more than just entertainment value. People laughingly make jokes about hand-eye co-ordination in reference to video games. But in truth that hand-eye co-ordination is critical in any number of daily tasks as is the fine motor co-ordination that is necessary to push lots of little buttons in odd combinations. Puzzle games can teach thinking skills and problem solving skills which have applications in all sorts of other endeavors. Video games frequently provide opportunities for parents to teach kids how to handle frustration and competition. Many games teach lessons about resource management, you have to manage your life levels and money and any number of other things. First Person Shooter games can teach how to react and respond to threats. Those are not skills I care for my children to have, so we don’t allow FPS games at our house. Video games actually involve children in thinking and responding, unlike television which induces a hypnotic state. I’m sure I’ve missed other things, but you get the point.

Perhaps all of the above is merely my way of reasoning away the guilt when I encourage video game play in order to get the kids out of my hair (every parent needs some sanity time). But I don’t really think so. I’ve seen the benefit my children get. The biggest benefit has been in their imaginary worlds. For every hour they spend tied to a screen playing a video game, they spend two or three away from the screen playing imaginary games involving Pokemon, or Mario Kart, or Kirby, or any number of other characters and worlds to which they’ve been introduced.

There are definitely times where I feel like they’ve been spending too much time playing video games. Then as a parent I need to step in and encourage other behaviors. I’ve discovered that video games tend to go in cycles. There will be a week or so where it seems like they do nothing else and then there will be a week where the games hardly get turned on at all.

I guess my point is that like almost any other experience which life offers, video games can be an extremely useful parenting tool if managed correctly.

Stepford Wives

By / June 26, 2004 / 5 Comments

I’ve been interested in the movie The Stepford Wives since I heard it was coming out. I figured that since I’m a stay at home wife and mother, I really wanted to know what was being portrayed and whether I agreed with it. So last night I got a babysitter, rounded up Liren, and we had a Girl’s Night Out to go see The Stepford Wives.

I really liked the movie. It was funny and surprising and the not-so-hidden end message was a good one. I was very relieved to find the ending different from the one in the book.

I was thoroughly amused by the over-the-top portrayal of the perfect hommaker. It’s probably needless to say, but that ain’t me. I try to keep a house that is sanitary, but it doesn’t gleam. In fact I frequently fail to reach the “sanitary” goal. As for always ‘looking my best’ I choose my clothing for comfort and for movability. Have you ever tried to catch a toddler while wearing heels? (I have, at church, not fun.) Hair fixing and make-up nearly never happen.

I actually did fix-up to go out last night and when Chalain came to drop off Liren they both said “wow, you look good.” The compliments were nice. It’s nice to know that if I choose to do something besides the mommy ponytail and bare face I can make it work. I actually kind of admire people who pay attention to good grooming daily. Not the people who are afraid to go out ungroomed, but the ones who can do both with aplomb and tend to do the “well-groomed” thing. I admire it, but hair curling and make-up applying still end up way down the priority list. Go figure.

To veer back onto topic, Do men want Stepford Wives? Well I suspect that there is an attraction there, otherwise this movie wouldn’t exist. The fantasy of someone beautiful who awaits your every whim has to be attractive. But I suspect it would eventually be boring. A Stepford Wife couldn’t change or grow. That’s what makes long-lasting marriages so wonderful, changing and growing together. Would Howard like it if I kept the house cleaner? Definitely. Would he like it if I paid more attention to grooming and fitness? Probably. Would he want me turned into a brainwashed bimbo? Nope. Not a chance. It’s one of the reasons I love him.