Mayhem and Magic

Cutest Little Bear Ever

Pumpkin's class had a performance recently, and it was pretty much the most adorable thing I've ever seen in my life.  The performed a simple play, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Pumpkin was Baby Bear, and I was crazy-proud of how well he said all of his little lines.  He kept glancing over at me and grinning.  He loved it!

Now, have you ever seen a sweeter bear?

Sparkle Goes To A Show

 

Sparkle and I went to a dog show recently.  These are a few pictures that Sparkle took himself. 

Sparkle basically had a good time, but he was more excited about the fact that we went through the drive through at McDonald's on our way home than anything else.  It's silly to take a child somewhere just because I want to go there.  Sparkle said he wanted to come, but I think it was more because he wanted to be the one to go with me than that he actually wanted to see anything at the show.  It's awesome that just the two of us got to do something together, but it wasn't really fair of me to take a six year old to something he wasn't very interested in, especially since I did want to watch some things.

When I was six I would have loved to do this, but guess what?  Kids have their own interests!  My job is to provide opportunities to try things, but just because I think it would be cool if he was interested in something doesn't mean he will be.  Bummer.

Sparkle really was a total sweetie...  He was very, very well behaved, especially for a slightly bored six year old boy in a place where he can't really run and yell.

I gave him the camera to try taking some pictures and then I went back to watching something else.  When I looked over at him he had pushed the wrong button on the camera and was then grabbing the camera by the lens.  I was slightly annoyed but not angry.  I had given him that camera because it's pretty inexpensive and durable and I didn't think he could damage it.  He was just trying to figure it out, no big deal.

That evening I downloaded the camera and saw that Sparkle had accidentally taken a few short videos as well as the pictures.  The last one was video of the grass/sky/grass/sky as he turned the camera around trying to figure out what he was doing.  And I heard myself in the background saying, "Sparkle!  Don't hold the camera like that!  If you can't handle it correctly then I'm going to put it away!"

Oh wow...

I couldn't believe how awful I sounded.  If one of the kids used that voice with me I would correct them and tell them to use a respectful tone.  For pete's sake, I gave the poor kid the camera with minimal instructions on how to use it.

I watched the video just after putting the boys to bed, and when I saw it I actually went to apologize to Sparkle.  He was already asleep.  And to be honest I forgot about it and never apologized.

It was pretty humbling and I'm trying to be more aware of my tone with the boys, making sure I speak to them with patience and gentleness.

Anyway...  we had some fun and some french fries, so it's all good.  I do wish I'd had another adult with me so we could chuckle at some of the Very Serious Dog People.

Word to the Wise

I scheduled a bikini wax on Friday.  When I got to the spa the esthetician showed me back to the little spa room with the comfy reclined chair and a towel.  (It would be a lovely chair to sit in if you weren't wearing just a towel.) 

After a few minutes the receptionist knocked and told me, "Lauren asked me to let you know that she's coming.  Her car just rolled across the parking lot and hit another car, so she's dealing with that.  She'll be about five minutes."  "Tell her to take her time," I said.  I grabbed a magazine and sat in the comfy chair with my towel on. 

About five minutes later Lauren returned. "Sorry about that," she said with a bit of a quiver in her voice.  "I don't know what happened.  I had the parking break on, but it just rolled... "  "Do you need some time?" I asked, "I'm not in a hurry."  "Oh, no, that's okay," she said, "I'm fine."  Then as she prepared her waxing gear she told me that her car just had a little tiny dent and the other car was totally fine. The driver was a little freaked out, though, and was giving her a hard time.  "She'll get over it, her car is fine."  She sniffed a little.  "I'm just so glad no one was hurt."  Even though the lighting was dim I could see tears forming in her eyes. 

Meanwhile she was approaching me with a little stick covered in hot wax. 

"Are you sure you don't need some time?" I asked again.  "Oh no," she said, "Thanks, but I'm fine."

Good lord.

I think I'm fairly stoic.  It's a good thing too, because when you're stupid enough to let a crying esthetician do your bikini wax, all you've got left is your stoicism to see you through.

News of the Week

1. This was the first week in the CSA season.  We got a bunch of spinach, cilantro, leeks, green onions, asparagus, and dried chickpeas, split peas and barley.  I have no idea how to cook chickpeas. Beloved and I are determined not to waste anything we get through CSA for the summer.  Many new recipes will be tried, I'm sure.  Yesterday I made a vegan split pea and barley soup.  It was...  okay.  Took forever on the stove-- three hours!  Can you cook split peas in a crock pot?  Today we had huge spinach salads for lunch.  It really was good, much better spinach than I have evereaten before.  We've both noticed a, hmm... a changein our digestive systems just a wee bit today.  (Is that TMI?)  I am annoyed with my body.  What, like it's never seen veggies before?  Have I been eating so few vegetables that my colon feels it must protest this dramatic change?  Sheesh...

2. This morning I turned on Sesame Street for the boys.  I got much more done in that one hour than I usually would.  When it was over I was in the middle of putting away laundry, so I just started another one off the DVR.  Heck, it's Saturday...  When that was over Sparkle said, "Please, Mom, can we watch some more TV?"  I told him, "No way, buddy, that was two hours!  It's beautiful outside, time to get your shoes on and head out."  And he said, "But, Mom, me and my brother like to melt our brains!" 

He didn't protest too much about turning off the TV though.  Later he told me, "Next Wednesday when it's my share time at school I'm going tell my class that I got to watch TV all day!"  I really, really hope he doesn't.  I'm counting on him forgetting by then about his magical two hours straight of TV time. 

I wonder how this summer will go.  It's not hard to leave the TV off at home generally, but of course we're at work and school most of the days.  When the boys and I are home this summer it might be different.  I'm going to try to avoid TV if I can, but I'm also not going to feel too horribly guilty if they end up watching more than usual.

3. Our neighbor's dog was killed by coyotes last week!  They took the dog for a walk out on a hill not far from our house and let him off the leash.  The neighbor lady said two coyotes came out of nowhere and killed him in a few seconds!  Holy crap!  Thank goodness their kids were not with them.  The coyotes didn't carry the dog off or eat him.  Maybe they were scared off by having people nearby or maybe the dog had wandered too close to a den or something?  Regardless, I think we'll stay out of that area.  Hmm, I think I just figured out why no one around here has outdoor cats.

4. We've been going to our church for about nine months now.  This is a lovely stage in our church-relationship, I must say.  We've been there long enough that we know people fairly well, we're not totally "new people" any more, but we're still new enough that we haven't felt like we have to volunteer to staff the nursery or anything like that.  Enjoying feeling mostly a part of the group, but not having to work too hard at it... 

We are lazy church-going people, apparently.  In my head I absolutely know that we must contribute to the community in order to be part of it, that service to others is 100% critical for anyone who says they want to be like Jesus at all...  But, dang, that "community" part is so much work!  So time-consuming!  I know that even if it seems mostly like an obligation at first that we will be happy to get to know people better and develop real friendships (and that even if we don't at first, it's not optional) (and I'm not sure yet in what ways we'll end up serving), but to be honest we're realizing that we've enjoyed the easy-ness of being on the fringe of involvement. 

The Boys Playing "Football Guys"

These "guys" are a big hit with the boys.  Gee, the playroom looks pretty well picked up here.  I'll have to see if I have any pictures from later in the day.  I bet it didn't last long.

(Here are a few more pictures of the playroom when it was all picked up!)

(And here's a link to the company that makes the football guys, in case you're interested.)