Peas and friends

Let me begin with the pea funeral at dinner last night. Little Guy sat at the table. He picked up a pea with his fingers, squished out its middle, then ate both the squishy middle and the skin. Sweetling sat pushing her food around her plate while alternating disbelieving looks at Little Guy and reproachful glances at her terrible mother, who had so unlovingly set a wholesome dinner of chicken, rice, and peas before her. Sweetling claims that what happened next was an accident. Her spoon, which was not at all busy conveying food to her mouth, squished a pea flat. She was distraught by the tragedy. I kindly suggested she eat her pea, so that its death might not be in vain. She maintained that she couldn't eat the pea now that its middle was all popped out. I pointed out that the middles come out in her mouth anyway, but that was an irrelevent point apparantly. All the other peas had to gather around the squished pea, forming a nice circle so that they could have a funeral for the dearly departed.

(Little Guy, meanwhile, had transitioned from eating his peas individually, to cramming every last bite of chicken in his mouth at the same time. I didn't think he's mouth would close enough to allow his teeth to meet so that he might chew. I was debating the advisability of suggesting he take a sip of milk. On the one hand, adding any further mass to the overload of substance in his mouth seemed like a bad, bad, idea. On the other, his glands couldn't possibly produce enough saliva to masticate that mess, so perhaps a little fluid would assist in producing a swallowable substance. In the end, he wound up storing portions of his chicken in cheek pouches I never knew existed on humans while he chewed and swallowed the rest in sections.)

At this point, Sweetling decided that the peas were entirely "too sad to be eaten". Dinner concluded with Sweetling gathering her peas off of her plate to take them to the garden where they could have a proper funeral for their late comrade. Sweetling wanted to know if the peas would all grow into new peas. I told her that peas would at the very least go back into "the circle of life".

After dinner, we all watched Finding Nemo together. Then I stayed up till midnight (or later) reading Anne of Avonlea. I have decided that Anne Shirley is my favorite fictional heroine. First, because she is such an imaginative dreamer. She lives and moves in a fantasy world, which only occasionally intercects with the reality of others, most often with uniquely amusing results. Second, because I understand and sympathize with how it feels to have one's beautifully dreamt up vision go so awry sometime between its conceptualization and actuallization. In short and in Anne's own phrasing, I find in Anne a "kindred spirit."

Here are two passages that I think illustrate my favorite Anne qualities admirably:

"...Anne keenly enjoyed her walk througt the great gray maze of the beechlands; though alone she never found it lonely; her imagination peopled her path with merry companions, and with these she carried on a gay, pretended conversation that was wittier and more fascinating than conversations are at to be in real life, where people sometimes fail most lamentably to talk u to the requirements."

The second passage is considerably longer, for its really more of a typical Anne escapade. To provide the setting, Anne has borrowed an old and rare platter from an elderly friend. In a chapter titled "A Chapter of Accidents", the platter is broken. Anne's good friend Diana has located two other possible families who have similar platters, that Anne might try to purchase to replace the original. Anne and Diana arrive at the first such family farm only to find the two grown sisters who own the property gone. Not sure whether to wait in hopes that the absent sisters will return soon and do indeed have a platter in question, or whether to drive to the second, further own location, Anne and Diana decide it is permissable, under the circumstances, for Anne to climb up on an old duck house in order to peer through the pantry window in hopes of espying the platter.

Much to her delight, she saw, as she peered through the pane, a willow-ware platter, exactly such as she was in quest of, on the shelf in front of the window. So much she saw before the catastrophe came. In her joy Anne forgot the precarious nature of her footing, incautiously ceased to lean on the window sill, gave an impulsive little hop of pleasure...and the next moment she had crashed through the roof up to her armpits, and there she hung, quite unable to exticate herself...[There follows several paragraphs of the girls unsuccessful efforts to free Anne from her predicament as well as whether or not Diana should leave Anne to drive for help. Then, as Anne is speaking...]
...'Fancy what the Copp girls will think when they drive into their yard and see a girl's head and shoulders sticking out of the roof of one of their outhouses. Listen...is that a wagon? No, Diana, I believe it is thunder.'
Thunder it was undoubtably, and Diana, having made a hasty pilgrimage around the house, returned to announce that a very black cloud was rising rapidly in the northwest.

Now, lest I leave you thinking that Anne is fated to be a perpetual victem of unfortunate circumstances, and worse, that I indentify and idolize her because of that, let me assure you that this is not at all the case. Anne is my favorite heroine because of her imagination, her ability to see beauty in the mundane, and for her tireless efforts to work to bring her ideals to fruitition, despite many setbacks and hardships she endures. Yes, I am entertained by the humor inherit in those setbacks, but Anne is in no way a comic figure. Neither is she in any way a perpetual victim, despite the fact that she occasionally wonders if she wasn't born under an ill-fated star. Rather, Anne is a woman of sensitivity and compassion balanced by vision and ambition. She works hard and acheives many academic honors as a teen. Yet, as important as these achievements are to her, as a young woman, she sacrifices a scholarship in order to stay near home and care for her adopted 'mother' who's eyesight is failing her. There she takes up a position as a teacher, eager to "make an impression for good" in the lives of her pupils. I admire her for both the ambition as well as the ability to prioritize and adjust her goals based on the real needs of those she loves. In Anne's words, " 'I'd like to add some beauty to life....I don't exactly want to make people know more....but I'd love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me..to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn't been born.' " In L.M. Montgomery's words, "Anne was one of the children of light by birthright. After she had passed through a life with a smile or a word thrown across it like a gleam of sunshine the owner of that life saw it, for the time being at least, as hopeful and lovely and of good report."

So, enough of my mini essays. I'm going to go paint my toenails corral pink. If I thought I could get away with it, I'd be picking up a bottle of sunless tanning lotion. But you know that any attempt I make in that regard is bound to turn out dissastrous. I can just imagine me *streaked* in an unnatural orange color, with my fingernails stained an ugly brown. No, thank you. I'll keep to my sad pale self, and avoid the humilation of the later.

Nemo update-- Nemo came down with a mystery rash. Mystery because I can't for the life of me figure out what caused it. Between waking up in the middle of the night with it, and taking benedryl before nap to help clear it up (which results in an extra long nap) his sleep schedule for the past couple of days is totally thrown off. We called the Jedi's mom about it (she's a pediatric nurse.) Its looking much better now, but it bothers me that I can't figure out what caused it. I'm afraid to let him have any more strawberries, in case those were the culprit.

Sweetling update-- Sweetling is a little stressed by the changes in her life. She hasn't complained, but she's been spending a lot of time (even for Sweetling) alone in her room and her appetite has been pretty depressed. Tonight was the first night since Saturday lunch when she cleared her plate. I'm taking Sweetling out for a mother-daughter dinner at the metling pot (along with Telephone and her daughter) on Thursday. The Jedi took her out for lunch and a shopping trip at Borders yesterday. (Sweetling used a birthday gift card to get Codebreaker: The History of Codes and Ciphers.)

Me update--I've been spending most of my days with nearly all of my focus and attention on Little Guy when he's awake. During his naptimes, I've been either doing housework or doing soemthing with Sweetling. Last night, the Jedi and I watched "Planet Earth: elusive animals of the world's deserts", just because the Jedi was channel surfing and neither of us had the energy to pick something more interesting from our dvds. Sweetling gave me a new Webkinz, so now I have two of these little guys. I spent Little Guy's nap time yesterday adopting Genevieve the Unicorn and letting Sweetling help me decorate Genevieve's room. So...essentially, there isn't much to put in a "me" update. It's been all about the Little Guy recently, with some efforts to make it all about the Sweetling as well.

Smurf the "Ant"

I have more blog entries from Guatemala, but I'll have to wait till I'm motivated enough to fire up the laptop and pull them off of there. That motivation is obviously not hitting me today.

We got back on Saturday. The Jedi videotaped Little Guy coming into his new room. "Look it! Look it!" said Little Guy, as he kept turning around in his room and finding something else really cool that exited him. I had been very concerned that one of the biggest causes of sibling rivalry between Little Guy and Sweetling was going to be centered around the sacredness of Sweetling's room and Sweetling's stuff. But Little Guy had already demonstrated respect for Sweelting's things in Guatemala, and he quickly transferred that ability here. In his room for the first time, he needed to establish for sure that these were his things. So he'd extend his arms and hands over something and ask, "Mine?" I'd assure him that those were his stuffed animals. "My books?" Yes, those are Little Guy's books. "My toys?" Yes, those are Little Guy's toys. "My trucks?" Yes, those are Little Guy's trucks. "Wanna play with my trucks."

The rest of the evening was spent with Little Guy going from one activity to the other. He needed to get everything out, establish what was and wasn't his, examine the things that were his, then put that thing back and move on to the next thing. The good thing was that he was careful to put his things neatly back before getting something else down. The Jedi, after having seen the haul I brought home from the shower Telephone threw for me, had had the foresight to put about half of his toys up for now. That way, said the Jedi, Little Guy wouldn't be overwhelmed with stuff when he first got home. The Jedi, as usuall, was totally right. Even with just the few, by comparison, things down, Little Guy was in new toys and new things overload. He couldn't even sit still long enough to eat his dinner at one time. Instead, he'd take a few bites of pizza (alfredo, no tomatoes), then hop down and explore. Then he come back to the table later for a few more bites. He did really, really well going to bed and going to sleep that night. I was worried that our first night might be rough, but Little Guy was absolutely comfortable, more than comfortable, going to bed with his Nemo pillow and Nemo blanket.

Sunday we went to church, which was a little overwhelming for Nemo, but totally needed by the rest of the family. Nemo stayed right with us in the sanctuary for the first part of the service, then the Jedi and I went up to preschool and stayed there with Nemo, who made a craft and had a snack, and played with toys and enjoyed himself. Sweetling, of course, went to Hiz Kidz with her friends.

We had our first real conflict of wills Sunday evening. Sweetling and Nemo were watching a video together in the living room. The Jedi and I were sitting on the floor of the school room talking. We heard, from the other room, that the video had ended, and Sweetling was trying to explain to Nemo that it was too close to his bedtime to watch another video. So, we went on in there. I told Nemo that there wasn't time to watch another video, but that he could do a puzzle or play with his dinosaurs for a few minutes before bedtime. Nemo was not happy with this decision and began to cry. I said I was sorry, and that we could watch another video tomorrow. More tears. I suggested, one at a time, other fun activities Nemo could choose. Nemo shook his head at each one and continued to cry. I told Nemo, he could choose to cry if he wanted to, or he could pick something fun to play with. Nemo chose to cry. I said ok, and went to the school room to work on my monthly dinner menu and grocery list. Nemo crawled down the hall so that he could cry outside the open school door. I suggested again to Nemo that he come in and play a puzzle. More head shaking and tears. I put on some music. Nemo would calm down, so I'd look up at him to see if he was ready to do something else. As soon as he had my attention, Nemo would cry again. I put a toy next to him, in case he decided to make better use of his remaining play time. He crawled into the school room to sit and cry near me, since crying in the hall wasn't producing the desired result. After 15 minutes of this, I told him he had two more minutes until bedtime. He cried through them. I picked him up, told him very nicely that it was time to brush his teeth, and carried him into the bathroom where the Jedi brushed his teeth while Nemo sat on my lap and cried. I continued to talk to him nicely while we got the teeth brushed and psuedo rinsed and while I sat him on the toilet to go potty. Carried him, still crying, into bed and read him his two bedtime stories. We said prayers and gave kisses to the still crying boy and tucked him into bed. he went to sleep not too long after that. Since then, we haven't had any more issues about only watching one video before nap and one video before bed.

Yesterday the Incredibles visited. Violet and Sweetling quickly disappeared into Sweetling's room to discuss and play all things Webkinz. After a failed bubble blowing time in the driveway, Nemo, Mango, Dash, Jack-Jack and I went to the back yard where there is a swing set and a sandbox. Nemo wanted his bucket filled with water so that he could fill up his little watering can and then wash off the swings and slides. I did that. That eventually turned into, lets splash Mommy, to Dash's great delight. That turned into, let's Nemo and Dash both splash Nemo's Mommy. Nemo decided he was far to dry for this game, so he dumped his watering can down the front of his body. Then the game became, Nemo and Dash throw water at each other. The Jedi came to the door and looked out. He said, "At this point, do you want me to just hook up the sprinkler?" Mango and I decided this sounded like a capital idea. We then stood in the sandbox (the only part of the yard not hit by the sprinkler) and took pictures and videos while Nemo and Dash ran back and forth yelling and screaming, getting drenched, and having a great time. At one point, Sweetling and Violet emerged, took one look at the dirty, wet, boisterous playtime, and decided it definitely wasn't for them. So the first meeting between Dash and Nemo went really well.

Later, on Monday afternoon, Smurf came over. She gave Sweetling two Little Kinz and three packs of Webkinz trading cards (ooooooooo). Then I dragged her to the grocery store with me while Nemo was napping. After Nemo had woken up from nap, I introduced my sister as Nemo's aunt...Nemo shook his head and I, thinking he was still tired, decided to leave off the rest of the explanation until later. Well, by later, I was busy skinning chicken and getting meats packaged up to go in the freezer. Nemo and Smurf were playing happily together in the school room, so finishing the explanation of who Smurf was just sort of slipped my mind. She called me today to tell me that Nemo had been calling her something in Spanish while they were playing together. She looked up "aunt" today, thinking maybe that was it. No, "aunt" is "tilla", and that wasn't what Nemo was calling her. A light bulb went on. Realizing Nemo didn't have a lot of experience with family relationships, Smurf looked up "ant" in Spanish. "Hormiga." Yes, that is exactly what Nemo called her numerous times yesterday.

Now, understand, that I am *not* laughing at Nemo. It isn't his fault I didn't explain things well to him. I am, however, laughing at Smurf. You see, when Sweetling was a little girl, and her vocabulary was very limited, she had about 4 words that she could use to refer to any creature in the animal kingdom. Mommy, and only Mommy, was "Mama". Daddy, and only Daddy, was "Dada". Every other human being on the face of the planet was "fren" (friend). (Including the teletubbies, which aren't human, but you know). Sheeba our 80lb German shepherd was "dog" as was every other 4 legged creature. Smurf was also "dog". No one knows why to this day, but Sweetling was very insistent about it and refused to be swayed from this appellation and categorization of Smurf as "dog". So, the fact that once again, one of my children has been calling Smurf by an animal name is highly ironic and amusing.

Don't worry, I'm not so amused by this that I won't make sure Nemo understands. As tempting as it is to let him call her "Hormiga" for a while longer, I've got a book in Spanish about Los Famillas that we'll read together this afternoon. It has a page with aunts, uncles, and cousins on it. We'll not poke fun at Smurf at Little Guy's expense. At Smurf's expense? Absolutely. Any chance I get. But not at Nemo's expense.

Finding Nemo

My good friend wrote this in her blog. I read it and cried, so I'm sharing it here:

"Finding Nemo"
Once upon a time, there was a the sweetest, cutest little fishie named Nemo. Nemo had a problem: he needed a family. Nemo lived in a school of fish where there were some very nice grownups who took care of him, but sometimes late at night, Nemo would lie in his little bed and wish that he could have a mommy and a daddy all his own. Beyond that, though, Nemo had a secret wish... that when he got his family, it woul dbe a family that had a sister just for him. Nemo had always wanted a big sister to love him and take care of him, who would play with him and smile at him and make him giggle.

One day, the grownup fishies who took care of Nemo gave him a picture of a family. They said, "Nemo, this is a picture of the family who is coming to get you. They are going to be your very own family, but you will have to wait a while to see them." Nemo looked at the picture. There was a beautiful mommy with lovely, long hair , big brown kind eyes full of love, and a kind smile. There was a daddy who looked like he would take very good care of Nemo no matter what. Nemo liked the tiny hint of mischief in his eyes, thinking that he would be a lot of fun to play with! And..... best of all, there was... a LITTLE GIRL! A SISTER! She looked just like Nemo had dreamed her. She had big, beautiful eyes and a great big smile. She looked ready to play! Nemo loved them right away. He wouldn't wait to see them, for them to be his.... but how long would he have to wait?

Oh, for two year old Nemo, it seemed like forever! Then one day, Nemo turned three. And then another year, and it was close to Nemo's fourth birthday. Still he dreamed about them and wondered, would they ever come?

Meanwhile, across the world, the family in the picture was longing for Nemo! They had many pictures of him, even a couple video clips of him playing. They had been waiting to be able to get him so long. every day, his mommy and daddy and his big sister prayed for Nemo, that he would be safe and healthy, and that they would be able to go to get him soon. But, sometimes deep down, they wondered if the day would ever come when they would be allowed to travel to find Nemo and bring him home.

Just a couple weeks before Nemo's fourth birthday, the news came to Mommy and Daddy: They would be able to go get Nemo soon! They flew into action, and travel was set up for just after Nemo's birthday! All of their friends and family got so excited, that they decided to have a great big "birthday party" for Nemo to shower his family with gifts for Nemo so that he would have everything he needed when he got home!

The day to travel finally came, and Nemo's family traveled across the world. When they got to Nemo's town, the grownup fishies met them... and they were surprised to see a sweet, shy, cute little fishie with a very familiar face there too... it was NEMO! They had found him!

Nemo loved them right away. His mommy and daddy were everything he had hoped for, and his sister was even more so! She was so loving and kind, fun and giggly, and took such good care of him that Nemo's heart was fairly bursting with joy.... and the feeling was mutual on her part!

The next few days passed quickly as they took time to get to know each other and play together. then they got to go finish the paperwork, and Nemo was officially part of their family! They had a very rocky time getting home, because Mommy, Daddy and Big Sister got sick on the way and Nemo was very nervous, but they made it home.

Tonight, Nemo is going to bed (what else... his Nemo bed in his Nemo room!) in his new home with his new family. He has a forever family, and they have a forever boy. And their friends the Incredibles could not be happier for them (or more impatient to meet Nemo!) :)

And they all lived happily ever after.

Congratulations to Chocolateer (whose name on my blog will forevermore be Mary Poppins, because I think she is "practically perfect in every way" ), the Jedi, and Sweetling on Finding their little Nemo!

We got back from Guatemala on Saturday, June 2nd. I kept a blog on the laptop in Guatemala, but of course couldn't post it. Its way too long to put into one post on Blogspot (I think). So here it is.

Good Morning

Good Morning, world, how are you?
I hope you're feeling fine...
I've been up since four, but I'm really not that tired,
'Cause I'm really, really wired.

The suitcases are packed. The carryons are packed. The luggage tags are filled out and attached. The passports are in their own little travel wallet (with a string that goes around neck or waist).

Today, I need to call Erin and ask to borrow a suitcase. The suitcases are packed, but the biggest suitcase is pushing the 50lb weight limit. We have three carry-ons. We have one Big Honking suitcase, one reasonable suitcase, and one overnight bag to be checked. We think we should borrow two more reasonably sized suitcase and repack the Big Honking and the overnight bag into two reasonable suitcases. (The original thought was to not have to drag three suitcases through the airport....but getting to the airport and being told that Big Honking is over its weight limit is going to stink even worse than dragging three suitcases.)

Today, Sweetling wants to play on Club Penguin because they are having a member party.

Today, I want to take Sweetling to the library to get her a nice chapter book for the plane ride.

Today, Sweetling needs to take a dose of malaria medication. Its a pill to be swallowed...so this ought to be interesting.

Today, I'd like to get the house clean and ready for us to come back to a clean, tidy dwelling.

Today, I need to fill out medical papers for Sweetling and I to put in our passport wallets.

Today, I have the attention span of a squirrel.

Today, the Jedi wants everyone in bed by 7pm so we are reasonably rested when we have to get up at midnight to drive to Columbus. There's no way Sweetling will go to sleep at 7pm. So really, what will happen is that Sweetling will lay in bed reading for a couple of hours, the Jedi will go to sleep, and I will lay in bed thinking and daydreaming. When I finally do fall asleep, I'll wake up often in a panic that we've overslept and totally missed our flight....usually after having a dream about some similar disaster.

Today, today, today.

Today is our last day in Cincinnati for a while. This trip will be the longest we've been away from home since our honeymoon. And, really, this trip has our honeymoon beat for length by a day or two.

Today, I'm going to go through my day certain that I'm forgetting something critical.

Today, I'm going to need lots of chocolate.

Today, I'm going to pick up some easy novels to read this afternoon when everything is done (yes, it totally could happen) to keep myself sane.

Today is the last day of one chapter of my life. Tomorrow, I start a new chapter.

Thursdays are for Sparring

The back space button is getting a lot of use tonight.

Attempt at a blog entry---take three.

I may as well include all of Energy's journey in this blog. I'm never going to keep up two blogs....and todays blog is all about Sweetling anyway. "Hooray!" says Sweetling behind me.

Thursdays are the sparring days at Tae Kwon Do. Sweetling is now a yellow belt. ("Hooray!" says Sweetling, still behind me.) Sweetling had a belt test a couple of Saturdays ago. She broke a board with her foot. ("Hooray!") Master W worked with her specially on breaking the board.

But Thursdays are for sparring. They all get pads that cover their chests, stomachs and sides and foam helmets. Then they spar. Now, there are two other little girls in Sweetling's class...("and they are both very cute"). Ususally Sweetling is paired with one or the other of the little girls. The girls are smaller than Sweetling, but one is one belt higher, and the other is two belts higher. There is often a lot of giggling going on during the little girls' sparring matches.

Last Thursday, there was perhaps a bit too much giggling, because during the next round, the little girls were not paired with each other. Sweetling got paired with a boy only slightly bigger than her who has a high red belt. (The belt order goes...white, yellow, orange, green, high green, blue, high blue, red, high red, junior black, black.) Against the high red, Sweetling resorted to the time honored technique of running away....which in this case meant that she ran in circles around the edge of the ring. The high red just stood there and watched her. The assisstant instructor said, "Sweetling, why are you running around?"

Sweetling replied, "Because he's trying to kick me!!"

The assistant instructor convinced her, after some talking, not to run around in circles. He demostrated dodging and the side step thing that they do. Sweetling stood there. The high red decided it was time to land a kick.

Now, I've seen in movies where a person gets kicked and gets sent flying, but I've never seen it in actuallity....at least, not before Thursday. The high red landed a kick. I think Sweetlings feet did hit the floor twice before she hit the wall behind her, but they mostly just skimmed the floor like a rock skipping across a pond. But, she got back up, and went right back into the sparring ring.

So, I was a little concerned this Thursday when Sweetling was paired up against the same high red. But Sweetling did a really good job of holding her own. She took a couple of hard hits, and she went down a couple of times, but she didn't give up and she kept trying to land her own kicks and punches. I saw her face twist up on the verge of crying once or twice after the high red had landed a solid hit, but she didn't cry, and she didn't whine, and she didn't fuss, and she didn't give up. She stuck it out till the end and I was really really proud of her and of the progress she had made.

On Tuesdays, by the way, they work on their forms and practice various kicks and punches on pads. Last Thursday, Sweetling was struggling with this elbow thing and this sucker punch looking thing (yes, Mommy knows so much about this subject). Master W pulled Susan aside for private instructions. Sweetling still wasn't quite getting it with the pads, so Master W put the pads aside and showed Sweetling how to elbow him across the face and how to sucker punch him in the gut. So Sweetling practiced her elbow thing and her sucker punch thing on Master W's face and stomach rather than on the big thick pads. I just had to throw this one in there.

Why I hate gardening

Yes. You heard me right. I love gardens. I love flowers. I love designing and planning gardens. I hate the actually gardening. Why?

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.
I hate thee to the depth and breadth and height
The weeds do reach while seedlings hide out of sight
For the ends of Hopes and idelic dreams.
I hate thee to the level of pointless days
Most uselessly spent in hot sun and mosquito filled night.
I hate thee truly, for you look a fright.
I hate thee purely, you mire of a plight.
I hate thee with a passion poured at first
In my visions of what you could be, and with all my broken hearted faith.
I hate thee for what I tried to bless, you cursed
Through bitter betrayal, --- I hate thee for the worst
Repayment of all my love and labor! --- and, if my plans be ever shattered ,
I shall but hate thee as the Round-Up I sprayeth.

Cadoo

It's 9:45 am. I have four girls in my living room playing Cadoo. They are all still in their jammies. They are surrounded by piles of sleeping bags, pillows, and assorted articles of yesterday's clothing with a few stuffed animals and baby dolls thrown in for variety. The only bare patch of floor is taken up by Sweet Streets buildings and people. The downstairs is covered in dress up clothes, play dishes, and more stuffed animals. I have a bowl of oatmeal sitting on my back patio because someone spied a stray cat during breakfast. The little school desks are covered with cake racks upon which tiny little clay tea sets are drying.

All is right and well in the world.

I need to make a decision though. I have several people who have asked that I keep a blog about Energy. I think this is a fantastic idea. Here's the tough one though...I originally started this blog as a "me time" sort of thing. I really want to keep it that way. But, I know me, and I know that I wont keep up two seperate blogs...one for me, and one devoted solely to Energy. So, which should I do? I thought also about posting twice on this blog...one for me, one as an Energy update...but, I'm not thrilled with that option either. At that point, I may as well have two separate blogs. The Jedi wants to run the blog for Energy off of our own servers...but I don't think that would allow for comments. I like comments. I'm needy that way.

We fly on May 26th :)

We leave Cincinnati between midnight and 1am to drive up to Columbus OH, arriving at the airport around 3am. Our flight departs at 6am. We have an hour and half layover in Houston and then we arrive in Guatemala City at 11:35 am local time (which is two hours earlier than our time).
We get picked up at the airport by the director of the orphanage where Energy lives. We'll be staying at the mission house attached to the orphanage so Energy can get to know us in a safe and comfortable environment. Then on Tuesday, the director drives us with Energy to the Mariott in Guatemala City. We stay there overnight with Energy. Our appointment at the American Embassy is at 7:15am Wednesday, May 30th. We get Energy's visa on Thursday afternoon.

We fly home, departing at 12:15? pm on Friday and arriving in Columbus at 11:35pm. We're spending the night at a motel in Columbus. On Saturday, we're meeting with the Jedi's parents (who are driving down from Canton OH)...hopefully we'll have a picnic or something at a park with a playground. Then we drive back to Cincinnati Saturday afternoon.

I figure the more I repeat this, the more real it will seem. Right now, it still has a very surreal quality to it.

Energy's drawers are full of clothes and his shelves have fun toys. I just finished the last of the fish on his walls. There's a table in the rec room/computer room stacked full of stuff that needs to go with us on the trip.

I just kissed my Sweetling for the last time as an 8 year old. Tomorrow she'll be nine. We need to bake and decorate her cake, and tomorrow night three of her "bestest friends ever" are going to spend the night.

Vaya got married on Saturday. I about held my breath during the exchange of vows, and then again during the exchange of rings. I did *not* however, cry. Again, the whole surreal quality.

Vaya got marred, Sweetling is turning nine, and we're flying to Guatemala.

See, you can't tell me that any of that sounds real.

Christopher Robin's life movie would be....

An animated musical!

Your life would be the kind of movie where a guy and girl sing mushy songs and birds flutter and flowers bloom and little bunnies giggle and hide their eyes. It sounds too good to be true and, in fact, it is -- but that doesn't stop you from dreaming. You're a true romantic and your friends wouldn't have it any other way.

Certainly this friend wouldn't. My face hurts from grinning as I typed that in. Here's the scoring system they used:

1. c--2
2. a--2
3. b--2
4. c--4
5. d (one of my only girlie traits)--4
6. b--3
7. c--2

You just barely missed "A goofball comedy" (12-17 points). But strangely, I'm thinking pegging you as "animated musical" is more amusing than a "goofball comedy". Here's the description for the other category:

A Goofball Comedy
All your life, you've been makin a whole lot of funny. Firends know they can count on you for the perfect smart-aleck remark, so, of course, the movie of your life would have them rolling in the aisles. Remember, they're not laughing at you, they're laughing with you.

Just for Christopher Robin

So, Christopher Robin, who is totally *not* high maintenance, is feeling left out because she hasn't been the star of my blog in a while. Not only has my entire blog not centered around her, but I had the audacity to write about someone else...twice! The nerve of me! (See, I can tease like this on my blog, cause she can't reach me until she's had a few days to calm down.)

Therefore, I have a blog that's JUST for her. No one else. This is all about my non-high maintenance friend. Nevermind that I introduced her as the woman who was in the delivery room with me when I had Sweetling. That, apparantly, doesn't count as a sign of my deep friendship and appreciation for her presence in my life.

No, no....its all about blog time baby.

And, since Christopher Robin just loves girly girl things, I have a personality quiz for her. Just for her. Too bad for the rest of you.

Without further ado....presenting........

Christopher Robin's Life as a Movie!!!!!!

If your life was a movie, what kind of a movie would it be?

1. Which of these signs would you hang on your bedroom door?
a) I *heart* kittens.
b) I'd rather be skydiving.
c) Warning: Contents Under Pressure
d) Private! Keep out! This means you!

2. If you could be a superstar athlete, which sport would you choose?
a) basketball
b) skateboarding
c) figure skating
d) gymnastics

3. You get a aper cut at school---what do you do?
a) ask to go to the nurse's office--immediately--before you die
b) gross out your friends with your blo-o-o-o-ood
c) put a bandage on it
d) pass out

4. Which fictional character would you most like to eat lunch with?
a) Bart Simpson
b) Prince Charming
c) Harry Potter
d) Black Beauty

5. There's a nasty insect in the shower. You....
a) squash it
b) name it
c) rescue it
d) scream

6. You and your date want to make a big impression at the dance. How do you arrive?
a) on a motorcycle
b) in a horse-drawn carriage
c) in a helicopter
d) in the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile

7. Surprise! Your parents redecorated your room. The worst color they could paint your walls would be
a) black
b) plain white
c) pink with flower stencils
d) no new paint---they left the walls as is

Now, Christopher Robin gets to pick the answers to her questions. Then I'll score her quiz for her and post with a sneak preview of the genre of her life movie.

"Perfect"

You know the scripture, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect. Well, I think the definition of perfect we generally think of is wrong and I think Heavenly Father's perfect is that he accepts all of His children just as they are, so in that way I can be perfect and accept others and myself just as we are.

Flybaby in UTAH

I lied

I'm not answering my questions from the last blog. Not today at any rate. Those of you who know me aren't surprised.

Another big non-surprise... All spring I've told myself, "I'm not gardening this year. I don't have time for any gardening this year. I am not going to be sucked into starting a gardening project that will fail miserably in August anyway."

I caved.

It was mother's day. The Jedi has been mowing the yard all spring. But the grass by the edge of the lamppost had mingled with the daffodils around the lamppost and was looking really gnarley. So, it was mothers day. I was only going take care of the tiny tiny area around the base of the lamp post. Its at the end of the driveway, near the street and the sidewalk, and one of the first things people see when they pull up to our house, and it looked terrible. One quick weeding project. That's it.

But it turned into, while I'm out here and I'm wearing old jeans and have my gloves on...

Theres a strip of ground on my side yard where I had smothered weeds and scraggly grass last fall and planted daffodil bulbs. But the daffodil flowers are gone now, and here's this bare piece of earth that is threatening to turn back into a weed patch. And there were packets of flower seeds in the butter door of my fridge from last year. So, I figured I should put those two things together. I had a bag of humus in the garage. I made need little rows of rich humus for my seeds and I edged each little row with white rocks that I had dug up from the path in the butterfly garden in April (remember...the strawberry patch was supposed to be relocating to the butterfly garden). I trimmed the little bed with these logs/branches that were blown down last winter but were too big to fit in the shredder. The Jedi had already stacked them and trimmed off all the side branches. So, now I have a little bed of seeds in neat, cute, little rows all tucked in. Will they grow?

And of course, while I was going through the leftover seed packets, I came across a packet of pumpkin seeds that Sweetling had picked out last spring that we had never planted. I had another bare patch of earth that has been waiting for three years for me to start a container herb garden. I sent Sweetling to the back yard with a spade and a bucket and told her to dig up some of the nice earth from the strawberry patch. She did and then made little mounds of it to plant her pumpkin seeds in.

Everything got watered yesterday and again this morning. We shall see. We shall water and wait and see.

It turned cold again before we could get the strawberries moved. Now they've already flowered and started to form berries....so its much too late to relocate them. Maybe in July after we've harvested their June berries.

Mom tag

from Cranium. I'll even answer these sometime.

What better way to spend Mother’s Day than learning something new about the lady of the hour? We came up with 12 fill-in-the-blank questions to ask mom (or grandma - or, hey, even dad!). Check them out below, along with responses from some of the moms here at Cranium Central …

1. I’m giving up my name and nicknames, so from now on I’d like you all to call me ________.
2. What’s the longest stretch I’ve ever gone without sleeping, in hours?
3. I may not be perfect, but everyone knows I’m excellent at ________.
4. The strangest thing I’ve ever eaten is ________.
5. Next year is the year I’m going to learn how to ________.
6. If I were stranded on a desert island, the one thing I’d really want to have with me is a ________.
7. The best costume I ever wore on Halloween was ________.
8. I used to hate ________, but now I love it.
9. If I could travel back in time, I’d want to meet ________.
10. If I was a superhero, my secret power would be ________.
11. If I landed in a vat of food, I’d want it to be full of ________.
12. If I ruled a country, the national anthem would be ________.

Ball-point pens

I haven't blogged in a while. I mean, really blogged...not just putting up webkinz screen shots or posting lists of busy-ness. I think its because the things that are really on my heart and mind are just too difficult to write about. So instead, I use activities as a shield.

One of the women in my bible study group on wednesday was sharing an annalogy about the healing process. Its like scrapping off wall paper in an old house. You start to get the first layer off, and realize there is another layer of older, ugler paper under that, and maybe another layer under that. Each layer has been put up to cover the old, ugly stuff that no one wanted to look at or deal with anymore. But, to truly get a fresh start, you have to get every layer off, sand the wall down, and start over. And the process is hard, hard work. And the process is messy. And things are going to look and feel worse for a while before complete healing is possible. But once you start, you need to stick through it and finish the job.

But I think its all right too, to close the door for a bit, take a break. Go drink some water, get refreshed, and then come back to it. That's where I am right now. I've had enough of the layers of wallpaper. I'm not even sure, in some points, what the real wall is supposed to look like or when I know I might have reached it. So, I shut the door, and took a break. I will go back to it. I have to. But not just yet.

And in the meantime, I'll post my lists, whine about my losses to stuffed animals, and buy two packs of different kinds of pens before deciding that ball-point pens are just not worth the money, even if they are cheaper, cause I'll never write with them. Yes, it took two packs to figure that out. Anyone want some pens?

Dogbeard's Bathtub Battles

I'm losing again. This time to Piggy the Pig.

Today was a 'be careful what you wish for' day. I complained to Smurf that Sweetling's dress was taking a lot longer to make than it should, for no good reason. Fate then decided to give me good reasons for the dress to take longer.

My nice little break was losing an animated version of battleship to Piggy. The dress isn't finished, but the bobbin thread ran out, and I don't feel like messing with it anymore tonight. Tomorrow is a new day to overload with activities.

'Cause its the...second... of May

Not nearly as catchy as a tune.

Good news:
--We'll have a date for flying to Guatemala sometime next week. Is it sad that I've already picked out my entry title for the blog on that one?
--My dress for Vaya's wedding came. Its a little too long, and I don't know what to do about that, because the bottom edge is covered with embroidery...so I can't just cut it off and re-hem the dress. Well, I could, but at the loss of the embroidery.
--I bought the pattern and the fabric I needed for sweetling's dress. I still need buttons and some trim, but I thought I'd take Sweetling to the fabric store with me to pick those out. Plus, I need to get the dress made first, so I can measure exactly how much trim I'll need.
--Mango Margarita called me on Monday just to say hi and chat. (insert small victory sound byte here). I sent her a vase of red roses on Webkinz world. I hope that wasn't too forward of me ;)

Other news:
--I'm trying to avoid stressing and panicking. I tend to do that when I start feeling overwhelmed. I really want to enjoy the cool upcoming events in my life. Right now I'm taking more of a 'lets get this over with attitude' and not only does that not match the many blessings going on in my life, it means I'll miss out on a lot of events that should be bringing me a great deal of joy.
--Sweetling wants to have a birthday sleepover. There is not a single weekend that we can do this in before the Guatemala trip. I think we'll stick to the original plan of a park birthday party. I have no rain plans. As it is, I think the plans are, the Jedi goes and scouts a location. I stay here and wait for most mom's to drop off and talk one mom into following me over and staying to the party. The Jedi calls me when he has a location, and we head out. We asked the park about reserving a pavilion. On monday-thursday, you can reserve a pavilion for half the cost of a weekend rate...only $57. We're going with the scout and squat option instead. I still need to come up with a craft and a game for the girls. You know, if I HAD a flippin weekend night open at all, the sleepover would be the much easier option.
--The other option that I take when I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed is to say "forget this" and go read a book. I have a box of VC Andrews that MIL sent back from Canton with me. And you can all get off your literary high horses about the author (I'm looking at you, Smurf)....these are my mind-numbing alternatives to facing responsibility.
--Telephone really really wants to come over and paint fishes on Energy's wall. So does Smurf. I don't think I need to spell that one out any further.
--I'm putting off going to the grocery store, because the prospect of trying to come up with a dinner menu for May is just daunting. I'm envisioning a lot of spaghetti in our near future. I am, however, almost out of cocoa...which means my hot chocolate is in jeapordy. Am I a bad mother if I come home from the grocery store with mutliple boxes of spaghetti, jars of sauce, peanut butter, bread, and two or three tins of cocoa? Oh, and cookie ingredients. Maybe a brownie mix or two.
--Mother wants me to go the to bank, take cash out of my account in the drive through, then use a deposit slip to go up to the tellar and deposit it in her account, so she can use her check card to get gas to get home from work. I'd make a few comments there, but I'm feeling rather guilty that so many of my blog entries have turned into venting sessions recently. (She doesn't know her account number, so I don't have that to put on a deposit slip either).

Oh, more good news. I'd scroll up, but maybe putting this at the end will off set my little pity party (with snacks).

The light is visible at the end of the school tunnel. We need to reach 90% completion on the core lessons, and we're at 86%; 75%; 81%; 81%; and 78%. That's doable right? That's 7 math lessons, 15 literature lessons, 20 total language skills lessons (includes vocab, grammar, and comp), and 12 history lessons. Those of you who are particularly observant will notice that I skipped that 75%. Yeah, that's in spelling. We're taking a new approach to that for the remainder of the year, so I'm not too fretful of the percentage there.

Speaking of which, Sweetling is finished with her math, so I'm going to go do grammar with her.

Tra la la la la

I had a totally awesome weekend, but only have a few minutes, so I can't blog about that now. I actually sat down, because I just finished unpacking from both this weekend and last weekend, and figured I could take a couple minutes to check my emails.

Sweetling just went tra la la la la-ing down the hallway, with ka plunk ka plunk ka plunk following along with her. I looked up to see what the ka plunks were. She had a cup of glass marbles (the kind you put in vases for flower arrangements and the like) and was strewing the marbles all over the hallway like they were flower petals.

I just turned back to my computer without asking.

Mango Margarita OR I'm a stray cat

In the past couple weeks I...

...completed my first scrapbook ever. Key word here is completed. I've worked on scrapbooks before, but you know I'm not down with this completion thing. I got the pictures in the mail for the scrap book on Tuesday afternoon. The Jedi went through them with me on Tuesday night and scanned the ones we were going to use in the computer. On Wednesday I sized some photos and did a little photo editing because the photos were old, and their quality was low. On Wednesday night (after church), I got my first double page spread completed. I did a full day of school on both Wednesday and Thursday, and then on Thursday afternoon, between 3:30 and 11:30...I got all the other scrapbook pages done. Go me. About 18 pages (nine double spreads) in all. Yay :)

...discovered that red and green really do make a yucky color together. We went, as a family, to ColdStone last week or the week before (its all a blur.) The Jedi bought a strawberry cake, which had huge honking whole frozen strawberries on top that one could break a tooth on, but not eat. Sweetling wanted a smoothie, and I through the frozen strawberries in the blender. I didn't rinse the icing off of them, because I figured, bonus sugar, right? Well, red icing and green icing results in grey smoothie. Sweetling and I drank our grey smoothies anyway.

...drove the wrong way down a one way street on purpose with a van full of little girls. I told them to close their eyes. So, maybe that doesn't quite count as corrupting a minor. Endangering maybe...

...decided that as soon as my life calms down, I really need to spend time with my friends. Realized that my life isn't going to calm down until maybe July. Maybe.

...told Telephone that I was NOT working Veteran's Day and that if she signed our troop up for working the Veteran's Day program, I was anticipating being sick that day. Telephone laughed, but she didn't sign us up for Veteran's Day.

...wore matching shirts with Telephone to church on Wednesday. Our camporee theme for the weekend was "Extreme Home Makeover: Camporee Edition." I really really really wanted a shirt. They were so cool. They were also reserved for the workers and the organizers of the event. Which, you know, I wasn't. (see above for a clue as to why). Telephone nabbed me a shirt anyway.

...discovered that getting your thumb smashed by a hammer weilded by a 7 year old really hurts and birdhouses aren't as easy as they should be to build.

...was amazed that 400 girls could spend all day working at stations learning to use tools (including some power drills) and didn't have any injuries worse than a scrapped knee after lunch.

...got my picture taken for the local paper at above events.

...went stargazing with 7 little girls after campfire. Found the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Polaris, Draco's tail, Orion, Venus, and Saturn and was able to point them out to the girls. (Saturn involved calling the Jedi and having him run a starchart on the computer to tell me where to look and how to find it).

...was the absolute last group of little girls to get to bed.

...became enamored of Mango Margarita and want her as a friend in the worst way. Like grade-school, please oh please oh please be my friend.

...shuffled across the courtyard of the 'fort' in the middle of the night with Mango Margarita because neither of us could sleep for worrying about the seven little girls in the other room. Mango Margarita decided it was too cold to get out of her sleeping bag, so she did the sleeping bag shuffle across the grass. I stepped into my shoes, wrapped my sleeping bag around my shoulders, and through my flimpsy camp cot mattress over my back like a mutant turtle. Just outside the door of the room (which we reached after a great deal of giggling), Mango accurately observed, "We are the biggest losers *EVER*". She creaked open the door, and whispered "Girls, don't be scared, its just us." No one answered her, because the girls were all alseep. Not a single one was lying on their cot in a dark room feeling homesick, needing to go to the bathroom, or too cold to sleep, as we had imagined. Mango slept on the last cot open in the girls room, and I slept on my sorry camp cot pad on the floor. We still slept fitfully, waking up when the girls would turn over. (Which really was noisier than it sounds.) In the morning, we further proved our dorkiness because between the two of us, we couldn't get Mango's sleeping bag rolled up and back in its nifty duffle bag. The two of us were outside, trying to wrestle the sleeping bag into submission long after all the 7 and 8 year olds had rolled their sleeping bags up and packed up for the day.

...drank more hot chocolate than I even want to think about.

....have successfully made many dinners in the crockpot, which I remembered to plug in and turn on. Now I just have to work out this whole "turn it off" part at the end.

...am two weeks behind in my Beth Moore bible study. Haven't decided if I want to try to catch up, or skip it.

...am sleeping through the night, for 7-8 hours, but still feel sleepy through the day. The answer of course, is to maybe exercise to get my circulation perked up. Or something else that just isn't going to happen.

...learned that "putzed", which I've always used as a synonym for "puttered" has a *totally* different meaning.

...have been so very very glad that I didn't order any seeds or bareroot plants for the garden. The outdoors is just going to have to fend for itself this year. Its getting NOTHING from me. Nothing.

...tried to tactfully explain to Sweetling why its important that she get her foot up high enough to kick the little boy she is sparring with *above* the belt.

Next week, I'll...

...keep up the amazing progress Sweetling has made in school the past few weeks. She's gone from being behind (from missing a lot when mother was in the hospital and had appointments all over the place), to being on track to finish within the first week of June. I'd like to get finished before the end of May, but that's a long shot.

...get fabric and a pattern to start sewing Sweetling's dress for Vaya's wedding.

...hem 14 sashes for girl dancers.

...finish painting fishes on Energy's wall.

...clean Sweetling's fishtank and take her to pick out a couple new fish as a reward for the school progress she has made.

...wish I was able to celebrate the first of May properly. Nothing in our yard is conducive to that though.

...go on walks or scooter rides with Sweetling. Post our minutes on FlyLady's 'bless your heart' club to participate in her 'virtual walking tour' of America.

...make three dozen cookies for the reception after the Children's Musical on Sunday.

...call Mom to tell her about the Children's Musical on Sunday.

...get together a grocery list for May and go shopping. When I'll get to go shopping, I don't know. Maybe the Jedi can take Sweetling to Tae Kwon Do on Tuesday and I'll go while they're in class. Maybe I should do the May shopping week by week, since there's so much craziness going on. Maybe trying to go shopping every week would only make it worse.

...realize my plans for the week have a distinct lack of fun or interesting activities. Drink more hot chocolate to compensate.

Stuck

I'm writing a letter about the Jedi to someone who is very important to the Jedi. The Jedi asked me to do this, and I agreed. BUT, I'm stuck. I can't explain in a whole lot of details, because the Jedi is so very private, and I'm not sure he wants his story posted on my internet blog. I've gotten two paragraphs finished.

Stuck.

Suggestions?

And yes, I've been scarce. If it makes you feel better, I went for days without being on Webkinz either. Christopher Robin will tell you its because its spring.

Yes, it is Spring. Hooray for Spring. Glorious Spring. Wonderful Spring.

It also happens that every spring my life gets really busy. This spring is more busy than most. Now, I'm trying NOT to sound like a helpless victem of circumstance. I think that's a broken record that has been skipping along the same sorry rut in the women of my family for a while now. TPTTPTPTPPPPtttt to being a victim. I'm all freaking done with that.

But, in the priorities of my life right now, sitting down to spend time at the computer isn't high on my list. Not that I don't love all of you. Just that computer time is pretty far down there on my list at the moment.