Around the House: Week 2

Ed and I purchased our home almost three years ago. Since then, we have had a lot of renovations completed. We're fortunate that most of the work has been done by one man, who is regularly astounded by our home's oddities.

Last weekend, one of our hot water heaters started leaking. It is completely fortunate that Ed noticed this, because neither of us is often in this room of our labyrinth of a basement. Ed was down there turning fuses off so he could install a new light for our front yard - which has been broken for months, but we finally made it to the hardware store to purchase a new one.

We called our usual handyman up, and he was able to come over. His first goal was trying to figure out if our two hot water heaters (which are in different rooms) were somehow connected. To find this out, he followed the many pipes that lead between the two rooms.

Usually when he is at our house, he can keep from laughing, and hold his expression to one of shock and amusement. This time, he actually burst out laughing when he saw all of our home's pipes and told us it looked like we were in the basement of an apartment building.

I'm thinking that was not a compliment.

Elaine

Helenstyle

Helen is definitely the style maven in our home. For the past few days, she's decided to up her game and add make-up.

On top of that, she's somewhat offended by the idea that there could be clothing in the house that fit her, but are not hers to wear. Because Helen regularly rejects Connor's hand-me-downs that don't have a print or stripe on them, I assumed she wouldn't want to wear his old puffy green coat. When she saw the coat sitting in my home office, she insisted she be allowed to wear it.

This is fine by me, of course. However, after slogging through one day with the coat on, Helen planted it firmly back in the "get rid of" pile. Apparently it doesn't meet her high fashion standards.

Elaine

Politics - Not Neutral in My House

I know many people take pride in raising kids in a politically neutral home. I'm not one of them. I'm all about discussing the existence of God (some people think yes, some people think no), whether one should be a vegetarian or eat meat (most people eat meat - even Daddy, but I don't feel good about it), and all sorts of other tricky social topics. I'm not so open about who I'm voting for. I'll admit to having more of a my way or the highway approach to this topic. I figure I was raised in a Republican household with little discussion of Democrats and I became a Democrat. If my kids want to be Republicans, they'll have to work for it, too.

This is the last election related conversation I can remember having with Connor.

Connor: Why do you dislike Romney so much?

Elaine: Because Romney thinks he gets to decide when I have babies.

Connor: But that really doesn't matter much for you, since you've already made your decision. You just care about it for other women.

Elaine: Yes, Connor. I care about it for Helen and every other woman. Also, I believe in equal pay. President Obama thinks that women who are equally qualified who do the same job, ought to get paid the same as men. Mitt Romney doesn't agree.

Connor: Yeah, that's really important.

.....

Ed, later: No need to mention to him that that's money right out of his own white, male pocket.

Elaine: Yes. He'll have to figure that part out on his own.

I voted weeks ago in early absentee.

Foundations

Most of the time, I'm perfectly happy to send Connor off to school each morning. There are obvious benefits to the free, public education provided at our neighborhood school. And what a difference a year can make. He's made friends easily this year, he understands the rhythms of the day. His classroom teacher understands and so clearly cares about him. She put him in his own word study group, and he loves that. He sees his gifted teacher twice each week now, and she absolutely loves him. She'll be with Connor through the fifth grade, which provides a nice bit of consistency for him. Prior to his broken arm, Connor was really having a fun time with the boys on his soccer team. He really seemed to have figured the school and complementary activities out. Dare I say, the year was almost easy?

But I confess to a few moments that still make my heart do a little lurch. Most of these have to do with the art curriculum, but I'm taking the ostrich approach to that. I also felt a little sad when Connor broke his arm because typically at recess, he runs around with several other boys playing soccer, or plays chase with another set of friends. Neither of those activities are good for broken arms. I imagined a kid sort of drifting around the playground, waiting for the bell to let him leave his misery. Since I think recess is quite possibly the most important thing Connor does each day, the thought of him not enjoying it hurt my heart.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I went to volunteer in Connor's class last week at the Halloween party. I arrived early enough to see him at recess, and was prepared to bring him inside with me so he wouldn't have to see all those kids running around and having fun without him. He had told me before that he wasn't really doing much at recess, although he sometimes "hung out with the girls". When I arrived, leaving early was not what he had in mind. Instead, he showed me this:

As it turns out, he and a few friends have been building "birdhouses" on the school playground. A mom of one of the girls happened to be volunteering with me and while we set up for the party as recess continued, she mentioned that some of the girls have really enjoyed Connor's arm being broken, because it means they get to play with him at recess. That warmed my heart.

That ended up being one of those days that I was pretty happy to send Connor to our neighborhood school. Today was another one of those days. When I walked Connor home from school, he was so excited to tell me that his teacher had given him a new book, just because she thought it was too hard for the rest of the class and that he would enjoy it. Enjoy it he did - reading the whole thing before bed tonight. Thank you, universe, for placing these kind children and educators in our path.

Elaine

Science Sunday, Week 1

I should explain the recent titling of posts. I'm participating in National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo, once more. Every day in November, I will attempt to post. I've done this for a few years, some years more successfully than others.

Last year was my most successful year, and I'm confident it's because I gave myself some structure. I wrote an advice column. If you want to read my daily blatherings, all of the posts are linked here. I actually had a lot of fun with this challenge last year.

This year, I decided to break the challenge into days of the week. I plan to write about a different topic, posting roughly four times on each topic. I decided this on November 1, so it's been a little shaky getting things going. The structure is this:

Thursday: Around the House
Friday: {this moment}
Saturday: Fall / Winter Crafts
Sunday: Science Sunday
Monday: Connor's Day
Tuesday: Politics
Wednesday: Helen's Day

Wish me luck.

The first installment of Science Sunday happened quite unexpectedly this afternoon. It is one of the many good by-products of Connor's broken arm. A friend of mine that I met in 7th grade sent Connor a care package. It's basically a small plastic tube and a roll of Mentos candy. In order to make a geyser, you are supposed to secure the plastic tube to a diet soda bottle (and that diet part is important, because apparently diet soda is a lot less sticky than regular soda). Then you place a pin in the plastic tube, stack the Mentos on top, pull the pin out and watch a 25 foot geyser happen.

Connor and I carefully read the instructions on the package, and then Ed helped Connor with the experiment. I don't think Ed ever read the instructions, and that explains this video.

The play-by-play is this.

1. Ed does not follow the instructions.
2. Helen warns her friend Naim of impending doom.
3. Naim's mom and I assure Naim everything is fine. Clearly, we are optimists.
4. Connor paces nervously, and then tries to assure the crowd about what will happen.
5. Ed warns about a "splash zone".
6. Ed discovers the splash zone at the point it becomes obvious he didn't read the instructions to the experiment.

In case anyone ever wondered why Ed and I do not home school our children, I think the above video puts that issue firmly to bed.

Elaine

Fall / Winter Crafts: Week 1 Needle-Felted Pumpkins

At the Fall Festival where Helen attends school, my mom saw some lovely needle-felted pumpkins. I'd been at handwork group the week these were made, and had received a brief tutorial on how to make them from the talented woman who made them. She brings so much to our school. We're lucky to have her!

As soon as my mom and I were able to steal a quiet moment during her visit a few weeks ago, we set to making our own pumpkins.

Step 1. Start with white wool roving and tie a knot. Tie more knots if you want a larger finished product.

Step 2. When you get the pumpkins the size you want, layer white wool roving on top and needle felt them until you get the size and shape you want.

Step 3. Cover with orange roving and needle felt it on top of that.

Step 4. Either use a string to make the ridges of the pumpkin, or spend some time felting in the lines (what my mom and I did).

Step 4. Needle-felt a small green / brown stem and when it looks just about right, add it to the pumpkin.

Not bad for our first try! It's almost given me the confidence to try and make some more complicated animals, which might show up in someone's Advent calendar this year, presuming I get that Advent calendar made!

Elaine

{this moment}

From SouleMama: {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Share your own moment in the comments or at SouleMama.com.

Around the House: Week 1

Meet Pico.

Pico is a gnome who lives at our home. He sits quietly on a shelf all day long, but will often join us for dinner.

Pico has very sensitive ears, so it is extremely important that if you sit near him, you speak softly so as not to harm him.

Last weekend, Helen cleaned up his apartment a bit, which has led to her checking on him more regularly, to make sure he is comfortable.

A few days ago, I decided Pico must get a little lonely sitting all by himself during the day, so I made him a friend.

Even with a friend, Pico sits and makes not a single sound all day long in his very tidy apartment.

Oh, if only we could all live like that some days!

Elaine

Frankenstorm, Day 2 / Halloween

Frankenstorm blew its hardest, and there were times when I was confident the neighbor's treehouse would free itself from the tree, but in the end, we were left unscathed. The power never went out (thankfully!). Neighbors a few blocks away lost their power, and hadn't regained it as of around noon today, but it seems to be a relatively small patch of homes. There was one classroom at Connor's school deemed unusable for the day due to the hurricane, but Connor didn't know what damage there actually was to the room.

Halloween evening was warm enough for the kids to enjoy trick-or-treating, and though they went their separate ways this year, both had fun.

Connor has been reading the Diary of  Wimpy Kid series, which gave him a few good ideas for Halloween. First, he was insistent on going with a friend this year, rather than Helen. He decided that Helen slowed him down, and he wanted to cover a lot of ground this year. I think he forgot that typically he turns in before Helen does. Second, he encouraged Ed to throw a trashcan full of water on teenaged trick-or-treaters (Ed declined), and third, he was going to use toilet paper to wrap himself as a mummy. I upgraded him to cotton and latex free gauze, held together with latex free tape. Connor was not allergic to his Halloween costume, which was a bit of a victory, and it did not degrade as he was wearing it.

Helen's friend invited us over for dinner, a neighborhood bonfire, and trick-or-treating, so Helen went trick-or-treating with G. for a little while, and then finished her evening with a walk down our street. For treat tonight, she insisted on a pumpkin cookie from Grandma Carlene (they arrived today, thank you!) and a chocolate bar.

Both had quite a pile of loot. And if this year is anything like last year, I'll be tossing some of it out next Halloween. As much fun as a giant bowl of candy seems each year, it never quite gets consumed. In part, this is because Connor picks the crappiest candy available (Skittles, Starburst, think fruity and chewy and not chocolate). If he picked better candy, I'd eat a lot of it.

Helen wanted to be a ghost for Halloween, and we had discussed making the costume essentially the same as last year's pumpkin costume, but with a white fleece blanket instead of an orange one. Unfortunately, the hurricane disrupted my planned fabric store run, so I needed to make do with things at home. I actually like how it turned out, but it wasn't what Helen wanted. She did agree to have her photo taken just so I could see it on her. She didn't wear it anywhere.

I loved how the silk floated so easily, and with a little wind and movement, I think it would have been magical.

This morning, after deciding the ghost outfit was not what she wanted, she turned to the dress-up box and pulled out the cape I made Connor for his "hobgoblin" outfit from a few years ago, added a gold paper birthday crown, and picked up a sword. She declared herself Saint Michael and she was off to slay the dragons. But by this evening, she had decided on another costume.

In perhaps the greatest irony of all time, Helen opted to dress as Nicole, the little girl in the book "Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon".

I'm not making this up. The girl wears full-on dress-up clothes to non dress-up events regularly, but wears completely normal clothes on Halloween. I love her. Adults were awesome tonight as she explained to them that she was Nicole! From Herb the Vegetarian Dragon! They would nod as if they understood and tell her to take an extra piece of candy. It's hard to resist that smile.

Happy Halloween, everyone! And hope your power is on soon, if it isn't already.

Elaine

Frankenstorm, Day 1

We survived Day 1 of Frankenstorm. Our lights flickered regularly, but so far, they're hanging tough. Thank you, to whomever trimmed trees or made offerings to the utility goddesses to keep things working in the neighborhood. I sincerely appreciate it. If the neighbor's treehouse stays put through the storm, it will be a miracle. We had a small debate about whether the driveway (which is close to the treehouse) or the street (which seems vulnerable to random debris) was the best place to park the car. We chose driveway. Hope that works out.

Because our home is near a hospital and allegedly shares power lines with that hospital, the power in our neighborhood rarely goes out. And when it does, it tends to get restored quickly. That's somewhat comforting, except when there's a hurricane outside? It doesn't matter what power comes back online first, because nobody's power is being fixed until the winds die down. And also, we lost power for, the neighbor's claim, the first time in FOREVER during the Spring's derecho, and I'm feeling a little snake bitten still, so not so confident that we do, in fact, keep our power all the time.

A few neighbors came over to play Monopoly with Connor. He outlasted them all to claim victory. They played in the basement a bit and then after the other children were gone, Connor started another game with our babysitter (who lives with us - don't think I made someone came into work today!). After that, he said that he was tired of Monopoly. I hope he remembers this feeling and Monopoly will quietly slip into a thing of the past. That would be a true blessing delivered by the storm.

One of Connor's friends peeled off the game rather early and went to play babies with Helen. Talk about heaven! Helen even lined up a playdate with her the next day, and another parent is taking the boys for more board games tomorrow. Woot!

Ed carved finished carving our pumpkin with Helen and Connor, we both got some work done, and we finished off the night with a game of Yahtzee, some crafting, and bananas foster.

If the storm brings the zombie apocalypse, my mummy is totally ready.

Elaine