Basking in the glow

What a magical night we had.  A metro ride, an all-terrain hike through the park, a picnic dinner and then over the hill - there they were.  Dozens of flattened balloons.  I think our children thought we were crazy.  I could tell by the "is this it?" look in their eyes.  We persisted in telling them how great it was going to be.   We spent a half hour trying to keep William's hands (and feet and all other parts) off of the balloons.  And then, all of the sudden, they all came to life.

And it got better and better.  The night grew darker and the balloons grew bigger.  And then a horn sounded and they all lit up.  It was spectacular to be standing in the middle.

Could it get better?  Yes, it could!   A shout out to Teri, from the group CHANtastic,  for educating us on ballooning (is this a word?) and for allowing this to happen:

It was my favorite kind of night, spent with my husband, showing our children something new.  We put them to bed exhausted and filled with sweet, bright colored memories to visit in their dreams.

The end.

Nesting mode

Cover of family profile.  Dear Birth mother, please pick us!

Last page of family profile

Now that the family profile is in the hands of our adoption attorney, I have moved on to the next phase of my "pregnancy", one that I like to call neurotic nesting.  I am, by nature, a nester.  I loathe clutter.  I love organization.  The one and only part about being a mother that is hard for me to take is the stuff that comes with it - the cheesy cast-off stuffed animals that come from the church festival, the hundreds of homemade creations (and I don't mean the treasures, I mean the mass of foam frames that come from scouts, VBS etc), the pile of pajamas that don't fit my daughter, but for some reason she is emotionally attached to.  Wasn't I the mother who wanted simplicity?  The mother who wanted her children to have a few things that they adore versus hundreds of things that they don't even know they have?  Where did all of this stuff come from?  Here is where it came from:   kids' meals, school party favors, birthday party favors, "just because" gifts from family, store $1 sections, etc.  All well intended, but now having an effect on my children that I do not like - not really appreciating things.   Am I the only parent that doesn't think its necessary to provide party favors at school?  Shouldn't we find the joy in sharing a holiday cupcake with your class, not the cheap trinket that you take home?  And the junk that comes home from birthday parties - yuk.  I'm sure the little guests at William's baseball birthday party thought I was a big cheapskate when I handed them their parting gift - a box of Cracker Jacks.  Or maybe they liked it - now wouldn't that be a lesson for us parents?

Today, I headed up to the kiddos' bedrooms and took a trash bag with me.  Now here is my system:  trash and the above aforementioned items get thrown away.  Down from the attic comes the box of things that the kids chose to stash up there last year.  Those items went in the donation bag.  Up to the attic went the same box now filled with stuff that I know they never play with, that hopefully they won't miss and then next year,  those things will be donated.

When the school bus arrived at 4:00 and the clean rooms were seen by their owners, there was a nice sense of peace in our house.  We sat and talked about their days.  The nesting had eliminated clutter, around the room and in our minds and we enjoyed each other's company.

Some bunny loves me.

Meet the man behind the curtain,  the brains of this operation, the bunny beneath my desk.  Meet Doodles.

  He's fluffy, he's expressionless, he's litter trained.  Good bunny, Doodles.

Anniversary in London

15 years ago today I made the best decision I've ever made - to marry a boy who turned my head and called me his best friend for 8 years before September 2, 1995.  All my life I had worried about how my usually nervous stomach would feel on my wedding day.  As I stood at the end of the aisle looking down at Bart, I had never felt more calm and peaceful.  You know when a choice is right, when it feels like everything you've experienced in life has led you to that moment.  My life is great because of that choice, that boy, that walk down the aisle.  Today I celebrate the man that he is and the friendship that endures.

Even though he is on a business trip, today I am pretending that we are in our favorite city of London, roaming the streets, drinking tea and going for a bike ride.  And this is what I'd be wearing:



Happy Anniversary Bar-ton!  Love you, love you, can't get enough of you!

Smarty Pants

By the end of this school year, my children will be smarter than me.  I've been suspecting this for quite some time, but this week it was confirmed.  My ignorance became evident at 2nd grade and 4th grade curriculum nights.  New math is now even newer math.  Multiplication tables are no longer memorized.  What?!  It's taught using arrays.  My 10 year old is about to learn about the history of the state we live in, a state I did not grow up in and therefore, have no knowledge of.  I can still name all of the counties of Maryland, but that doesn't seem to be coming in handy.   I also know quite a bit about the First Ladies - again, not too handy.  Last year, as a 3rd grade parent, I learned that a new ocean has been named since the good old days of my education - the Southern ocean.  Come again?  No, a new body of water has not been discovered, but merely reclassified because new marine life separated it from its neighboring oceans.  So, first Pluto is no longer a planet and now there are 5 oceans. 

In my previous life before motherhood, I was admitted to several honor societies, received a college degree, analyzed pieces of legislation, compared merchandising trends and could understand all of the dialogue on West Wing episodes.  But here is where it gets interesting - time has stood still for me for 10 years.  For ten years I have changed diapers, filled my brain with the sing-songy lyrics of hundreds of children's songs and taught my three "students" about art, reading and how to be nice.   I love my life.  I have the luxury of staying at home and only worrying about my family and my friends.   I have enriched my life in more ways than I could have imagined when I became a mother.  I have long testified that a person does not need to care about science to be happy.  Except that my children are starting to ask me questions that I can't answer.   Things like:  How does that windmill make power?  How do cell phones work? Why is something more energy efficient?  Now, in my own defense, I did not learn many of these things because they DID NOT EXIST.  That is how old I am.

This week, much to my children's utter surprise, I have decided to take back my brain!   Last night, I borrowed from the 4th grade teacher, a copy of the state history book that Caroline will be studying.  I started reading it last night.  Fascinating!  And today, at Sam's Club, I purchased the following book:

I think it looks super boring, but my boys love it already and I want them to know that despite their mother's preference for all things 1950s housewife - sewing, cleaning, keeping house- I still have a brain and I will use it to learn the answers to their questions.

I'm off to read now.  Page 1 is simple machines and levers, which I learned last year in 3rd grade, thank you very much.  I feel smarter already!

P.S.  A special note to the women of CHAN-  so sorry about the recent delays in posting.  We just purchased a new computer and as you know, my IT guy promptly left town before teaching me how to post pictures.  No worries though, my children taught me.