Antiestablishmentarianism

1. Clearly, I'm not so good with goals: I began the month with the intention of writing a post every day in August, but with the understanding (explicitly stated) that I would miss some. And I have. But I don't really care. I've posted way more than I have all year long up to this point, so the net result is positive.

2. I first came to resent the whole idea of goal setting as a teenager in my church's Young Women "Personal Progress" program. I think it was designed to mimic the boys' scouting program (but without being actual Girl Scouts, because everybody knows Girl Scouts are a godless liberal training ground) (or something). We were supposed to set a specific number of goals in various categories (Knowledge, Good Works, Faith, etc) over the course of several years and if we accomplished them all by the time we left the program at 18, we got ... a necklace with a generic lady on it. Oooooh! My first year in YW, we were able to come up with our own goals as long as they fit the categories. Then the program changed, and we were only able to choose from a predetermined list. That irritated me.

First of all, I don't like being told what to do. (Even by myself, apparently.) It brings out my stubborn streak. But I certainly didn't like someone else trying to micromanage my personal accomplishments. Yes, I concur that Knowledge, Good Works, Faith, and all the other etcs are important virtues and ought to be encouraged and cultivated. But how I cultivate those in myself isn't really anybody else's business, and dangling a little piece of jewelry as incentive kind of cheapens the whole mess that much more. (Surprise! I never earned my necklace.)

I'm sure there are many, many girls who loved the program and benefited from it. But it had the opposite-than-intended effect on me, and left a lasting bad taste in my mouth.

3. There's a similar program for the Primary children ages 8-11, to prepare them to tackle Big League goal setting when they hit their teenage years. (And also, of course, to help them take responsibility for learning the gospel in more self-directed ways; I need to focus on that.) As their leader, I ought to be all gung-ho in helping them meet the requirements.... But I really struggle with my enthusiasm in this area. :-/

4. It's not all about church programs, though. I never liked the grade grab, either. I'm the sort of nerd who really enjoyed school (mostly, with a big exception for math classes). I loved the sense of accomplishment I got from doing challenging things well. I loved to feel those neurons flying, making connections between disparate points, my understanding of the world growing ever larger. That was enough for me -- if it came with an A, cool; if not, whatever. Education was the point, not arbitrary letters on a piece of paper. If I wanted an A, I used to tell people, I could draw a lovely one myself and stick it up on the fridge.

The "problem" (in other people's minds, not my own) came on the few occasions when I didn't think my educational time was being used well. For some reason we spent the first bit of my senior year AP English class working on remedial sentence construction:

"I have a dog." "My dog's name is Rusty." "My dog is black." === "I have a black dog named Rusty."

Really? That's college level course work? I should waste my time filling out worksheets like that? Clearly, no. So I didn't. And I failed that unit.

And I didn't care.

(I don't mean to disparage my AP English experience as a whole -- we quickly moved on to much more appropriate material. I LOVED that class. It's depressing, though, that the teacher thought any of us needed that unit in the first place, and even more depressing if she was right.)

Anyway, my rambly point: Education is absolutely a worthwhile goal. Micromanaging it with stupid busy work and offering cheap / arbitrary rewards, however, will never motivate me. (I think DH puts more stock in grades as a concept, so if any of our daughters turns out like me we'll have to figure out a way to respond as a united front.)

5. Maybe the real root of the issue is that I'm cranky and / or crazy stubborn. Or lazy; I'm willing to admit to some natural laziness that might disincline me to setting goals. I've just never been a striver -- I don't have the energy and I don't see the point! I don't think everybody needs to be a Type A Overachiever. I'm content to go with the flow, to improve myself as I can in my quirky and individualized way, without the pressure of answering to anybody.

As they say in the hood, I'ma Be Me. :-)


~RCH~

Zzzzz Zzzz

1. Sleep is delicious. I don't understand why my children don't want more of it!

2. Although we all slept in a bit this morning, so I shouldn't complain. For some reason my phone (which doubles as my alarm clock) ran out of batteries overnight (though I always make sure it's charged before I go to sleep, so I don't know what's up with that) and it didn't wake me up. I woke up instead to Uno right in my face exclaiming, "Mom, it's almost time for school!" We actually had 15 or 20 minutes to get everyone dressed, fed, and out the door -- which is pushing it for us -- but the adrenaline of waking up to that realization had everybody scurrying. No tardies. *Phew!*

3. Summer completely screwed up Cuatro's nap routine. I had hoped that when the big girls went back to school and the house quieted down, she'd return to her Cozy Nap After Breakfast, Cozy Nap After Lunch schedule.... But nope. She thinks she needs to be awake ALL THE TIME now (because she mostly was all summer, what with their noise and their wanting her to be their "puppy" all the dang time). *Sigh.* She still needs the rest, but she will cry herself into a tizzy -- she has never once cried herself to sleep; I don't think she's built that way -- any time I put her somewhere she might comfortably nap. If she thinks I'm trying to get her to sleep, she freaks out ... which is why she has napped for the past several days in the high chair; she doesn't see it coming. (Am I a terrible mom? It looks so uncomfortable, but I can't move her without waking her up.)

4. DH's uncle told the girls about a yoga program he likes to watch (watch being the operative word, I think; he has joint and other problems that I believe keep him from participating). "You all are young and stretchy," he told them. "You should do it!" And so, a couple days ago, they did: Uno dragged Dos out of bed at FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING to do yoga with some lady on PBS. 5:00 AM, seriously? When I discovered it, I turned off the tv and marched them right back to bed for another hour; they need their sleep far more than they need to do the downward dog (or whatever). They get grouchy without enough sleep! Thank goodness for a DVR; I'll record it for them and they can get their exercise after school.

5. I had a dream a few nights ago that I, as my teenage self, had to pick up two of my sisters from school -- one from elementary school, the other from junior high. Except that I forgot until way later in the evening. When I realized my mistake, I zoomed over to the elementary school first. All the doors were locked, but I found my sister around the back of the building, playing in a sand box. She didn't seem to care that it took me so long.

Then the two of us zipped up to the junior high, only to find more locked doors and a sign that said, "Student Waiting Area Closes at 10pm! No Exceptions!" It was 10:04. Too late. Couldn't find the sister anywhere. So the years pass, the family grows -- minus one sister (because apparently we never went looking or called the police or anything; sorry!) -- and finally I have daughters of my own that I have to take to junior high. (Don't remember if they were my actual daughters or fictional dream ones.) Lo and behold, who do we find there? The missing sister! Apparently she had waited for as long as she could, then went home with someone else, dropped out of school, stowed away on a freight steamer to Africa where she taught organic farming techniques to rural villages....

"Yeah," she said, "I kind of hate you for abandoning me, but I've had an interesting life -- and now I'm helping other young kids whose families forget about them -- so it's all good. No hard feelings." Then we hugged it out.

Anyone care to interpret that one? LOL.


~RCH~

So... Is this an every other day thing now?

1. I need to go on a spending fast: Necessary purchases only, and no talking myself into revised definitions of "necessary." *Sigh.*

2. DH has been working a lot of night shifts lately, which has its good points and bad points:

The Good
He comes home and sleeps the morning away, then wakes up as the girls come home from school -- which means they actually get to see him for several hours! When he works days, they see him for a minute or two as they eat breakfast, and then maybe after I've tucked them into bed if they're still awake when he gets home (assuming he gets home right away; if he gets a bad case right at the end of his shift, he may have to stay at work another couple hours to finish it up). When he works nights, he can help the girls with their homework, play games with them, eat dinner with us all.... It's lovely and rare.

The Bad
I get no sympathy for my own exhaustion because he doesn't work nights frequently enough for his body to ever fully adjust, and therefore he always wins the I'm So Tired contest. Not that we're competing. But seriously, sometimes -- often -- I really do feel very exhausted; can't I just have that? No, I wasn't up all night saving stroke victims or stitching up the aftermath of drunken brawls, but ... *YAWN!* ... my energy doesn't ratchet up in direct inverse proportion to the kind of night he's had. It's its own thing. Right?

3. I know I'm not supposed to think this way, but lately I've felt down / guilty because I don't do anything. Yes, motherhood is noble and beautiful, and/or the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, and/or whatever other clichés you want to throw at me. I get that I'm growing people -- four of them! -- and that's no small feat, but it's such a passive job. I make sure they're clothed and fed and occasionally bathed (LOL) and that they don't kill each other accidentally or on purpose, but it feels like most of my job happens on the sidelines. And nobody notices. And if they do, they're as likely to reject it outright as to appreciate it. (Tres, before having the slightest idea what we're having: "Eeew, Mom, I hate your dinner!" Every. Single. Night.)

I think if they could operate a stove or drive a car, the girls wouldn't need me at all. But here I'd still be, trying to interject every now and then with a "Hey, don't do that -- it's not nice to sit on babies!" while being ignored. What exactly is my net contribution? It doesn't feel like much.

4. Well, that was bleak. Chalk it up to the fatigue mentioned in item #2.

5. Let's see, a number 5.... Hmmm. So hey, East Coast Earthquake, huh? How about that. :-P


~RCH~

Weekend Update

1. Last night was rough. Cuatro is teething; Tres wouldn't sleep; I nodded off on the couch downstairs accidentally, and when I woke up at 3am to go to bed I found Uno and Dos in my bed (DH was at work) WATCHING CARTOONS. At 3:00 in the morning, SHEESH. I kicked them out. I've felt exhausted and mad at the world all day.

2. I took all four girls plus Uno's best friend O to the movies yesterday, mostly to get them out of the house so post-night-shift DH could sleep. We saw Spy Kids, but not in 3D. Except that it sort of was in 3D because, though our theater didn't offer the visual effects, we did get the smell-o-vision card which is supposed to be the 4th D in more "classy" theaters. So 2Ds, plus two, minus one, comes out to 3D -- just not in the way you'd really want. If you wanted any extra Ds at all. Or something.

3. When we took Cuatro with us to see the Smurfs, she behaved herself nicely: She quietly noshed on a bottle, then fell asleep in my lap until the movie ended. Not so for Spy Kids. She made all sorts of noises, so I left the other girls in the row and took her to the back of the theater where I could bounce / sway / butt pat her to sleep. HA! She refused. She screamed a bit (sometimes in a happy way, sometimes less cheerfully), made motorboat noises, vigorously wriggled in an attempt to let me put her on the popcorny ground (I didn't), and occasionally gnawed on the collar of my shirt. One time she grabbed my shirt to chew on it, but spit up inside it instead. Right down the front of me. It was awesome. (If by awesome you mean not at all awesome.)

4. Cuatro is FINALLY getting some top teeth. And I mean it this time! I've thought for the last three months that they would pop through "any day now" -- because really, statistically, they would have to at some point. And she can be inexplicably grouchy sometimes (though she's usually very pleasant). But I saw them today: Two little white lines on her upper gums. They're almost here. Come on, little teeth!

She got her only other teeth two at a time, and now she's getting two top teeth at once -- is that normal? I don't remember the others' very well (I am traumatized by all things dental) but I don't think they came in pairs. Maybe one pretty soon after another, but I don't remember my other girls getting them together like this. Hmmm.

5. Dos lost her other front tooth last week, BTW. On Thursday, I think; she had the school nurse pull it out for her that afternoon while she waited to be picked up. I like it when they fall out / get pulled out at school because then I don't have to deal with any of the icky aftermath. I think she looks like a vampire now with both of those teeth gone, LOL; it's a shame she didn't lose them closer to Halloween! She said I could stage a photo shoot with her tomorrow, so maybe I'll post pictures of her later. :-)


~RCH~

It's August, so naturally I'm thinking of Halloween

1. I've been looking at Halloween costumes for the girls. Mostly just for Tres, because I have no hope of influencing Uno and Dos in their decisions (darn opinionated children!) and Cuatro isn't old enough to get excited about Halloween yet. Tres, at nearly 4yo, is the perfect mix of impressionable and enthusiastic.

2. She doesn't remember her first Halloween (she went as a sack of Idaho potatoes) or the next one (the famous mouse made by my BFF), but she still talks about the puppy costume she wore at 2yo ("I had paws! And a dog nose!"). Her memory of last year has less to do with the costume she wore (a kitty / ballerina combo) and more to do with the fact that I wasn't there (I was still stuck in the hospital with 3-day-old Cuatro). Boo.

3. I want this year to be fabulous. It helps that we'll be visiting my hometown over that holiday, where people get way more into it than they do here. I think we have a significant minority of people in this area who abstain from Halloween for religious reasons, and then also cranky old people who don't want to bother answering their doors. DH is a Halloween grinch (he says he didn't like it even as a kid -- what a weird boy), but it probably ties with Christmas as my favorite holiday of the year. I love the chance to be someone else for a day, and I love seeing what or whom everyone else chose to be. Hooray for chocolate, but I'd love Halloween even without the candy.

4. I wish we had amazing costumes.... Somehow our names ended up on the marketing list for a chichi store called Chasing Fireflies. They sell insanely expensive children's clothing; I've never bought anything from them (DH would have a stroke) (for that matter, I would have a stroke) but I love looking through their catalogs. A couple weeks ago we got their Halloween issue, with costumes such as


The Queen of Hearts, $98

or


Marie Antoinette, "only" $88.

As elaborate as the costumes are, I'm sure they cost a lot to make and their expense is probably justified. But it's not necessary. Not when Walmart costumes can be had for $10! :-P

5. Walmart costumes make me feel terribly depressed, though. They're flimsy and cheap and pitiful. My mom made all our costumes when we were little, and they were beautiful; if I can't sew things for my girls (and believe me, I can't), I'd at least like them to have that kind of quality. Just not for $100/kid. I've been scouring etsy and other places for more reasonably priced costumes (maybe $30 or less?) but so far I'm still unsatisfied.

But I guess I still have time to mull it over.


~RCH~

Another Thursday Five

1. My new favorite recipe (which only Uno and I will eat, but whatever):

Awesome Black Beans & Rice

* 1 TBSP olive oil
* 3/4 cup onion, chopped fine
* 1/2 cup green pepper, chopped fine
* 1 cup (or 1 small can) diced tomatoes
* 1 can Bush's Seasoned Recipe Black Beans; drain & reserve juice
* 1/2 TSP thyme
* 1 TSP garlic salt
* 3 TBSP cider vinegar
* 1/2 TSP hot pepper sauce
* 1 cup cooked rice
* Meat of your choice (if you want any) (I've used ground beef or cubed pork tenderloin)

In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Cook onion and green pepper until tender. (If your meat isn't cooked, throw it in too; if I'm using leftovers I add it at the end.) Stir in tomatoes, beans, thyme, and garlic salt, and cook for 3 minutes. Add vinegar, pepper sauce, and reserved juice, and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Serve over rice.

(Sometimes I leave out the tomatoes because Uno isn't a fan -- I think when I do, I ought to use slightly less cider vinegar. They work well together, but the vinegar seems to take over without the tomatoes.)

2. I think it is too easy for me to disconnect from life. From people, more specifically. I don't blame technology; pundits and other talky types love to fault the internet for depersonalizing our society, making us all antisocial behind our little flickering screens.... But I was antisocial before the internet was born. I actually connect with real live people more frequently thanks to blogs (hey family, blog more!) (says the girl who averaged one post a month before this 5/day experiment) and Facebook and a private message board I belong to. Anyway, none of that is my point. Technology bla bla never mind.

It is too easy for me to disconnect. I am too comfortable in my own head. I love my family and BFFs, and when I'm physically near them I never want us to be apart; I want to always have them with me to talk and laugh and debate and commiserate with. And yet.... I go weeks (sometimes more) without talking to any of them. Part of it has to do with my phone aversion, sure, but also I am just too easily sucked into my own stream of consciousness as I bob and float through the days. I think I'm growing more introverted (if such a thing is possible) as I get older.

Or maybe I'm just completely self absorbed.

3. Our town has a weather vane store. Isn't that a crazy specific niche for a small town business? Maybe if we lived somewhere touristy that had lots of chic design / houseware boutiques and gift stores a weather vane shop would seem like a natural fit, but here it's just ... a crazy specific niche. Odd. Every time I pass it, I think, "You're so vane I bet you think that store is about you" (which is how item 2 segued into item 3, thank you very much).

4. Tres and I had preschool today! We learned about elephants at her request: We read Grandma Elephant's in Charge, learned how to make the letter E in both upper and lower case (lower case will need more practice), and then turned a few simple shapes (circles, a rectangle, and two crescents) into an elephant paper bag puppet.



We also practiced spelling her name, read another book (Pickle-Chiffon Pie), ate a snack (jello), sang the alphabet song a couple times, and of course we went out for recess. Cuatro, whom Tres elected on Tuesday to be Principal Baby, napped through the whole thing.

5. I need a passport. Not that I plan on going anywhere, sadly, but it would be nice to have in case I had to flee the country at a moment's notice. ;-) I used to have one (I've had two, actually) but it was in my maiden name. And then it expired. The girls (Uno especially) love to hear stories of my previous adventures, but it sure would be nice to add some new ones. *Sigh!*


~RCH~

Quickly, because I am exhausted.

1. I never sleep well the night before the first day of school -- I didn't as a student, and I don't as a parent. I'm not nervous; I have no concerns, no negative feelings at all; I simply feel restless. And so I rest less. Ha. Yeah, I'm tired. I fell asleep last night around 3am and got up at 6:30. I hate mornings.

2. Morning drop off was a complete nightmare! I had to take all four kids with me because DH hadn't come home from his night shift yet. We dropped Uno off first at the intermediate school. I parked two blocks away and had to speed walk with a baby on my hip and a dawdly 3yo trailing behind. When we got to the school I tried walking Uno to her class room, but a random teacher stopped me; apparently the new 3rd graders had to go to an assembly in the cafeteria first. So I didn't get to see her room, but whatever. Dos, Tres, Cuatro and I speed walked back out and down two blocks, waited for a break in traffic so I could turn left, and made it to the primary school just in time -- though of course with nowhere to park. Grrr. It's a miracle Dos wasn't late. I imagine they weren't terribly strict about punctuality today, but still. UGH.

I'm hoping the rest of the year will be easier -- today was unusual in that I had to park and go in with them. Most days I'll slow the car just enough for them to jump out, LOL.

3. Tres and I had our first day of home preschool today. All we did was talk about how we wanted the year to go: We made a list of rules -- things like raise your hand before asking a question, be kind and (at Tres's insistence) have recess. We made a schedule, deciding that we would meet twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, for an hour and a half. And then we brainstormed subjects Tres wants to learn about! The first thing? Pinecones. "Okay," I said, "let's write that down as Nature." She shook her head. "No, pinecones." So I guess I need to brush up on conifers! ;-)

I'm excited. I think we'll both have fun with this, and I think we will really benefit from more structured days.

4. Uno was waiting with her best friend when we picked her up after school. I asked O which teacher she had (they aren't in the same class this year, boo). "Mrs. XYZ," she said. "She's old." For some reason, that cracked me up.

5. How in the world are we half way through August already? That makes no sense.


ZZZzzzzzz....


~RCH~

Five Random Ramblings of a Procrastinator

1. I'm in the office looking for our 3-hole punch. The 3rd grade school supply list stated specifically that Uno must have four 2-pocket paper folders with three holes NOT prongs. Walmart had non-prong folders, but none with holes. I know we have a hole punch around here somewhere, but why don't I just sit down for a minute to blog and/or play Bejeweled Blitz...?

Ahhh, yes! :: Cracks open a Dr. Pepper ::

2. I think there ought to be a law to stop currently elected officials from campaigning for another position during their term. During the last presidential election, while John & Barack gallivanted around the country shaking hands and kissing babies, who was looking out for the interests of Arizona and Illinois, respectively? They were each hired to do a job -- and they each got paid for that job -- but spent all their time trying to get a different one. From my experience in the business world (it's been a while, but this seems like a no-brainer), that sort of behavior usually gets people fired pretty quickly and without the shiny references they'd need to keep climbing up the ladder. Everybody kvetches about incumbents and career politicians anyway -- a law like this would at least ensure they had to take turns, one term off and one term on.

Who's with me? :: Insert Howard Dean-style "Yeeeaaahhh!" here ::

3. Ensure vs. insure: Excluding industry usage (i.e., health insurance or auto insurance), the two words seem practically interchangeable; my online dictionary search says that they both mean to guarantee or protect (though the protecting seems more strongly associated with insure). I wonder why we have two distinct words that sound almost alike and have almost the exact same meaning? You'd think one or the other would have dropped out of usage by now. When one does, I'm guessing it will be ensure -- which is why I prefer to use it when I can. Save the redundant words! (I'm such a language nerd.)

4. The older girls start school tomorrow. Sort of. They only have to go until 11:30am. What's the point of that, I wonder? This is the first year I have students at different schools -- our elementary school goes from K-2; intermediate school is 3-5; middle school is 6-8; high school is 9-12. This year Dos will be in 2nd grade at one school and Uno will be in 3rd grade at another.... I'm feeling some anxiety about logistics, but I'm sure it will work out somehow.

In 2017 -- if I did my math right -- I'll have one kid in every place: Uno will be a high school freshman; Dos will be in her final year of middle school; Tres will be a 4th grader at the intermediate school and Cuatro will be in 1st grade. That will be a logistical challenge.

5. I think Facebook doesn't like me, and wants to let me know. A year or so ago I made a friend request to someone I knew in high school, and that person never responded. Which is fine -- I didn't expect to really reconnect anyway, just snoop around to see how his life had turned out and how time had changed him. I'm kind of nosy like that. So the friendship request is still pending, which means I am not privy to any of his deeply personal thoughts or what he had for lunch, but suddenly I'm getting status updates from him every time he accepts someone else as a friend. Is Facebook trying to rub this passive rejection in my face?

So weird.

Sigh. I ought to hunt up that 3-hole punch, I guess.


~RCH~

Family Photos

1. I don't remember how this came to me, but somehow I ended up with a digital version of a slide my grandpa took in the '70s (maybe from him? maybe from my sister?). The baby isn't named, but the photo is dated October 1975 -- which doesn't make any sense, because my sister, at 14 months, didn't have that much hair and I (although precocious in many ways) would not have been crawling at only two months old. I'm pretty sure the picture is of me in 1976; I don't have many (any?) baby pictures to compare it to, but the crazy hair looks familiar:



2. Everybody says Cuatro looks just like me. I tried to test the theory this afternoon by getting a similar shot of her, but she refused to pose correctly. Still, I got some cute shots. Such as:



3. Or this one (please note the crazy hair):



4. Or this one, in which she is reading Columbia, a Roman Catholic magazine we get because of DH's former membership in the Knights of Columbus (I don't think they know he converted). Is this my kid or what?



5. I was going to round out this post with side-by-side photos of DH as a kid and Dos; that child is 100% his, without a bit of me in her. (Uno and Tres tend more toward my side of the family, I think, but without looking like me in particular.) But the photos DH's aunt gave me when we first got married -- a jackpot of shots of him as an adorable baby and toddler on through his awkwardly skinny teenage years and culminating in the most fabulous '80s prom photo EVER -- aren't where I thought they were and I don't want to hunt them up at this hour. Oh well. That will give me something to show you in a future post. :-)


[Note: I may or may not be able to post in the next few days, so if you don't hear from me before Monday it's not because I'm blazy or forgetful or dead (I hope). It's a good thing I'm not obsessive about goals, because my 5/Day plan is already pretty spotty! :-P]


~RCH~

Wherein I figure out how to embed a YouTube clip (I'm so advanced)

1. That darn baby gave me her cold. *Bachoo!*

2. I can't remember why I didn't write yesterday.... Honestly, I don't really remember yesterday.... All my days run together. :-P

3. Uno is too big for the bicycle she got for Christmas the year before last, which is sad because she only just barely learned to ride without training wheels. It's kind of funny to watch her try -- her knees go nearly up to her ears as she tries to pedal -- but she keeps getting hurt, which is definitely not funny. Poor kid. She needs a new one.

4. I took all the girls to Goodwill this morning, both to look for a larger bike and to get them out of the house (DH worked a night shift and no amount of shushing keeps them quiet enough to let him sleep the day away). Goodwill had no bikes, but we did manage to get a fancy dress for Tres, two pairs of shoes, and a bunch of nice school clothes for the older two (plus a golf visor for Dos, who has always wanted a hat all her life and please, please, Mommy, can it be this one?) for $27.

5. A week from today will be the girls' first full day of school (they get out early on Tuesday, the first day). This is my favorite back-to-school commercial:



So much glitter! And on that note, goodnight. :-)


~RCH~

Eeeeeew.

1. Dos has a loose tooth -- several, actually, but one that's pretty serious about coming out, I guess. She keeps wiggling it at me and threatening to pull it out right in front of me and just now she and Uno came tromping in with a piece of string and asked me to tie it around the tooth so that Uno could yank it out with added force. I kicked them out of the room.

2. I am so creeped out, I can't even tell you. DISGUSTING. Teeth are DISGUSTING. Especially bloody, recently disembodied teeth. ::Shudder::

3. My children know about my aversion (hence all the teasing and taunting). When Uno lost her first tooth, she laughed and said, "Wouldn't it be hilarious if you had to be a tooth fairy?" I screwed up my face in disgust. "Noooooo!" I said. "I could never have that job! Gross!"

4. *** Breaking news! *** The tooth is out. Dos reports that she pulled it the old fashioned way, not with string. Is that any consolation? Nope, still creepy.

5. Voila!



~RCH~

I'm 36 now!

1. Today is my birthday. I told the girls I wanted a clean house and happy children; I'm not sure they believed me.

2. Poor Cuatro is sick. Nothing more nefarious than a summer cold, but the poor thing has a terribly gloopy nose that she won't let me suction or wipe and she can't breathe and eat at the same time. :-(

3. Uno suggested we all have a spa day before school begins next week. I tried to tell her we are not "spa people" (or at least I'm not). Tres tried to convince me of the benefits of a good spa treatment, too ("I saw it on Phineas & Ferm! They made a spa for Candace and she put vegetables on she's eyes to feel better!") but I will hold my ground. I'm sure it would be lovely to be pampered, but I'd feel so ... I don't know, like a poser. I'm just not fancy.

4. DH had to work today so we began my birthday celebration last night with a trip to O'Charley's (with kids) and then to see The Smurf's. Tomorrow we will have the ILs over for ice cream and cake.

5. Today, and for the next few weeks, I am the same age as my awesome sister. I loved growing up so close with her (in all senses of the word close). I'm grateful to be close with all my brothers and sisters, actually (though sadly no longer in the geographical sense). My family is the coolest. :-)

[Secret 6: I was going to post a full 10 tonight since I missed writing anything yesterday, but Cuatro is in my lap crying and squirming and being overall very pitiful, so I won't. Poor little Smooch.]


~RCH~

Completely Random Friday Five

1. Tres keeps asking me, "Mommy, where did you ever find that cute little Daddy?" She doesn't ask DH the same thing in reverse. Maybe she doesn't think I'm such a good catch? I do tend to think I got the better end of the deal.

2. I really like Phineas and Ferb. Also the Backyardigans and (*gasp!*) Yo Gabba Gabba (I thought I'd hate that one when it first came on). Probably in each case it's the music that first drew me in. Oooh, and also the new Electric Company. I think we have the tv on too much around here.

3. I don't understand boutiquey kids' pants with the huge, ruffly bells on the bottoms. They're usually in some crazy mismatched print, too. UGLY. And strangely expensive (I've never seen a pair at Walmart!). Do you know the kind I mean? I thought about linking to an example, but that seemed mean to whatever anonymous child model I might find so I abandoned my Google image search.

4. I wish I could draw / paint. I can make cartoony little pictures of people facing forward, but I have no actual talent for art.

5. In honor of Shark Week and the Girl to Whom I Need to Write Back (and who does know how to draw quite well, among a million other things she does well) -- the rest of you, please forgive the inside reference -- der hammerhead fallt auf dem water. :-D

Random enough for you?


~RCH~

Thursday's Five

1. DH took the older girls fishing this evening, so it's just me and Cuatro at home for a few hours. Ahhh, quiet! How I've missed you!

2. We had a crazy morning that began with Uno dropping a large plastic cup of fruit punch which then bounced off the table and splattered everywhere. Stainy, sticky red drops rained down from the kitchen windows, her chair, the table, pooled all over the floor.... "On the bright side," Uno said, "none of it landed on my scrambled eggs! My breakfast is saved!" Yeah. Lucky. Grrrr.

A couple hours later, we had some poop adventures with Cuatro -- maybe 20% my fault for not putting her diaper on very straight, but 80% her fault for being SO FREAKING WIGGLY that it would be impossible for anyone to put it on correctly. *Sigh!* I spent a good deal of time scrubbing her down, putting her in the bath, cleaning stains out of the carpet, disinfecting the changing table and a handful of toys, and making a collection of poop laundry (she got it on Dos's clothes as well as her own).

The day improved from there, though. I guess it would have to, lol.

3. In related news, my sister helped me pinpoint the way in which Cuatro resembles DH! Everybody says that she's an exact copy of me, not a trace of DH in her. But she is a perpetual motion machine, just like her father. She's always trying to escape her bouncy seat or changing table or my embrace; when she sits, she bounces (high! She could go to the baby Olympics with that bounce!). She moves, moves, moves. DH isn't fidgety, but he's always got to be doing something, some project or bit of work. I told him the conclusion we'd come to, and I think he wasn't sure if I meant it as a compliment or a criticism. In Cuatro's case, it's adorable -- sooooo much energy in a teensy-tinsy little body! And in DH's case, I think it's admirable; he's such a hard worker, and it's all to benefit our family. So for both of my perpetual motion machines, it's a compliment. :-)

4. I want to take the girls school shopping this weekend, but I'm afraid that Uno and Dos will have growth spurts immediately after I've spent all the bucks on fall clothes. (They've done it before, the meanies!) If I wait for the growth spurts, though, I'll miss some really good sales. I suppose I could just buy stuff that's too big.... Hmmmm.

5. We have no private preschools in this town -- no cozy home places, no church-affiliated preschools, nothing. The town of 2k people we came from had at least three, and this town of 10k has nothing but the underfunded public pre-K (you have to be extra needy or developmentally delayed to get in because they don't have enough teachers for everybody's kids) and daycares. I don't want to put Tres in daycare and pretend it's preschool, so she and I are going to embark on a learning adventure together. Eeeek! At this point I don't think I'm going to go all out with a particular curriculum, but there are a few workbooks I'm eyeing to help her learn all the basics (letters, numbers, shapes, etc). We'll probably set aside a couple hours twice or three times a week and call it school. Anyone who's done this kind of thing before should feel free to leave me some advice in the comments! ;-)

And that's my five for today.


~RCH~

I can do five things

My title may be misleading; I can actually do more than five things. But in considering how much I want to blog (fairly often) and how often I actually do (hardly ever anymore) due to various circumstances (FOUR children, ack!) (which is only a medium size family where I come from, but it's lots to me!) I've decided that I will give up (for now) trying to write long, detailed, eloquent posts about my deep inner feelings. Instead, I will try to post about five things each day through the month of August.

I already missed the first two days, oops. This project, like most I lay my hands on, will have to make do with imperfection.

So! We begin:


1. My sister, BIL and their adorable family spent the last week with us (or from Tuesday evening until Sunday morning, anyway). I miss them already! I did as soon as they drove away, in fact. I mostly know they won't, because other options make much more sense, but I secretly wish they would move into the house directly across the street for me, or the one ~three houses up the block (both of which are for sale and very attractively priced) when BIL is done with pharmacy school.

:: Let us pause for a moment of wistful dreaming ::

Or does anybody else I love want to move into my neighborhood? It's beautiful here, I promise.

2. Uno and Dos have discovered the game of Slug Bug. The only problem? They can't seem to tell the difference between a VW Bug and a PT Cruiser. I think it's hilarious; the two types of cars look nothing alike to me. But maybe their problem is hereditary, and my fault: I'm convinced I have a mild form of face blindness. Maybe my children have car blindness...? LOL.

3. I bought a MomAgenda last year to organize my crazy life. It worked very nicely until Cuatro came, and then (predictably) everything fell apart, organization-wise. I was happy just to make it through the day; never mind penciling in appointments and activities several days or weeks in advance! But now that school is about to start again and my life will return to some semblance of routine and order, I want to try again. Only I don't want to buy somebody else's planner. I'm currently teaching myself Adobe's InDesign program by trying to make my own August to August planner, with spaces for mine and each child's appointments, plus DH's work schedule. I'm a little confused about the data merge (I don't want to have to enter a year's worth of dates manually, UGH) but if I have some quiet time tonight (without children interrupting me every few minutes) I'm sure I'll figure it out.

4. The girls were adorable in their play, A Kidsummer Night's Dream. They were in the chorus line of fairies -- nobody 4th grade or younger was eligible for a bigger part -- but I swear they stole the show. ;-) Here are some pics:










5. Randomly glancing my hand across my bookshelf a few days ago, I found an old book I haven't looked at in years: A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ahhh, the memories it brought back! Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara, favorite poets of my youth -- they all make me smile. What I'd give to have been a black turtleneck or a pair of cigarette pants ca. 1961, LOL. I'd have been at all the cool poetry readings.

For your reading pleasure, here's one among many of his fabulous pieces:

I Am Waiting

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier

and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am awaiting retribution
for what America did
to Tom Sawyer
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder

"I Am Waiting" from A Coney Island of the Mind. Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.


~RCH~