What I'm thankful for

Relatives who are willing to host Thanksgiving every other year (thanks Sheila and Dave!).
Family who care about my kids nearly as much as I do.
A reliable vehicle to get us to visit family safely.
Vaccines and antibiotics.
Friends and relatives who let me hold their babies whenever I need a fix.
A job I truly enjoy and colleagues who respect my opinion.
The internet. Because how else could I save all these mundane parts of our lives for posterity??

We had a fun, relaxing time at my cousins' over Thanksgiving. Lots of food, drink, football, Wii, Nerf dart gun wars, and Dan and Jackie even ran in the Detroit Turkey Trot (5k). The topper to an already awesome weekend was getting to see my cousin, Christian, who we hardly ever get to see, and meet his 10 month old son, Lincoln.

I took almost no pictures of the food, apparently because I was too busy eating it, and no photos of the Nerf wars because I was too busy trying not to get hit! But here are some football videos and pictures of other activities throughout the weekend.

Pie! Pumpkin, Cherry/blueberry, and Apple.

Football team 1 on day 1.

Elliott recovering from the latest Nerf gun war.

Lincoln, Christian and Susie

Sheila the master chef.

Grace, Greyson, and Isaac playing a Wii game that they now all desperately want, of course.

Mutual admiration society. Dave and Lincoln, with Nat in the background.

Possibly the cutest baby ever (my own notwithstanding).

 Elliott gets clonked by Nat.

  Reece and Elliott clonk each other.

Nat's touchdown.

Greyson runs the ball.

Reece runs the ball - the wrong way at first.

 The ball was very slippery that day.

Reece's touchdown.

Jill's touchdown.

Happy Thanksgiving to Nick!

At the last minute, my brother, Nick, decided not to make the long trip to us for Thanksgiving. So we made these videos to show him he was missed:

Even in beautiful weather, accidents happen

My van (with me in it) got hit while I was driving to a salon appointment. See the evidence:

I could reprint the police report I submitted, but I'm assuming anyone reading this does not want to fall instantly asleep. So the short version is, I was turning left with a left-turn arrow, a gray sedan (driven by an ancient man - I forgot to check his birthdate on his license, but suffice it to say that I thought he'd gotten hurt because he was so shaky and seemed confused, but it turned out that's how he normally is) decided to turn right into me instead of waiting for me (and those behind me) to turn. He didn't want to call the police and had the gall to say that he didn't think it was his fault (!), I called anyway and found out they wouldn't come out since we were on private property, we exchanged info and then after conversing with my insurance company I drove to the police department to make a report anyway. There's still a chance it will be come a he-said-she-said since there were no other witnesses who stepped forward (believe me, there were LOTS of witnesses). Oh, and did I mention that Ancient Man is a lawyer? Joy. I'll know more after my insurance person talks to him and his insurance company. The van still runs fine (in fact, the door still opens electrically), I wasn't hurt and was the only one in the vehicle (thank goodness, because if he'd caused injury to my children, I might now be in jail for assault on a frail human), and even in the worst case we just have to cover the deductible and maybe our rates would go up.

I would like to take this opportunity, though, to put in print that if/when I ever get to the point where my driving is a danger to others, PLEASE take away my license and vehicle. And I will do the same for you, m'kay?

On a much happier note, it's been gorgeous here the past few days, and today the boys played dodge ball and kick ball with neighbor kids for a few hours. Then Reece ran around the playground for a while and asked me to take these pictures. And then print them so he can frame them and hang them up around the house. No lack of self esteem with that one.

Making applesauce to last us until next year at this time

It's become an annual tradition that my mom comes to visit toward the end of October to make applesauce with the boys. And it's now become somewhat necessary, since neither of my boys will eat any applesauce besides this homemade type! The boys remember the process from year to year, so it seems to go pretty smoothly. This was the first year I was here to witness the procedure and document it.

First, the apples have to be cut into quarters and cooked. We had a whole bushel, so it took multiple pots on the stove and some in the oven.

Grandma loads up the bowl on the top, Greyson presses it into the hole, and Reece turns the crank.

Quality control check.

Working together as a team, and no arguing! Borderline miracle, here.

Halloween wrap-up, a week late

Definitely the best Halloween yet, in my opinion. Adults ate Indian food while kids had pizza, there was no crying, we stopped when kids were tired and knew it, and the weather held. What more can I say, except that I did not manage to take very good pictures. And the wine had NOTHING to do with it.

More books and a quick trip

Four more books by RT have arrived at our house over the past week. "Colrs", which includes such entries as "GRA" and "BLOWE"; "Dots", which goes from one to five; "Pekshrs" (with the s's backwards), with a drawing of a stick figure, a traffic light, and left and right hands; and "Peses frum 1 to 10", which I think is "Pieces" and has drawings of upside down triangles. I don't get the things from his bookbag every day, so I'm not sure in what order these were created. They are being stored in a safe place, and I might even have to put them all together into one big book when he's through with this phase.

On a completely separate topic, guess where we were last weekend?

Dan's closest friends from high school had a sort-of impromptu reunion at one of their houses in Arlington, VA, so the boys and I decided to tag along and spend time with my close friend, Bernadette, and her husband who do not live very far from Dan's friend. We are all smiling in the picture, but most of the rest of that day was spend whining (Greyson) and snipping (me) at the whiner. Fun times! There was a great science and technology fair going on (you can see the tents in the background) but we only did a few genetics exhibits before we all died from the complaining. I did ask someone from the NIH if they were also handing out grants, but the answer was no. At least I got a laugh. We had a surprisingly good lunch at the Museum of American History, and we got to park in the parking garage of the Department of Energy and get special visitor tags and get scanned multiple times, so the kids got a good idea of what it's like to work for the government these days. We also stopped at Antietam on our way to DC, but I haven't downloaded those pictures yet. And that's where the whining started, so I'm not even sure if there is a good one in there anyway!

The kids are getting quite excited for Trick or Treating tonight, but I haven't let anyone open the candy bags yet. Mostly because I know then I'd be digging in. Reece already got to wear his costume yesterday for his school parade, so you can at least get a first glimpse of the cuteness that a five-year old at Halloween still is. Just be sure you tell him you think he's scary.

Fall and giant chess

I can not stop being in awe of the leaf colors this year, especially the maples. So I had to take a picture, although here you can really see the limitations of the iPhone camera. And my lack of photo-taking talent, but I refuse to care about that.

We have been in the shopping plaza where the giant outdoor chess set is twice now in a week, and the kids can't get enough of it. Reece doesn't even care if he loses to Greyson so long as he can move the pieces (especially the rook - usually his first move). When he takes one of Greyson's pieces, he knocks it down like he's playing wizard chess (see Harry Potter book 1 if you don't know what that is). I keep expecting someone of authority to come out and yell at him for this, but so far we've been left to ourselves to play as we see fit.

On a related note, Dan has an iPhone now (the 4, but I am not jealous - much) and took some better pictures of the boys playing the second time, but he hasn't yet played with all the features so they remain on his phone for the time being.

Reece the author

In kindergarten, there is "free choice" time apparently, and Reece has been spending his writing books. Then he brings them home and reads them to us before bed, and then he files them in the bookcase in his bedroom. Because they are books. However, they do not have a plot, and the illustrations are extremely rudimentary, but he could not be more proud of himself (as are we, of course).

 Reading one of his books to Dan last night.

The first was his A-B-C book, which is currently missing somewhere in the house. The second was titled "People frum 1 to 10" (in kindergarten phonetic spelling). Here are the cover and page 10 from that one:

The third and most current one is "Rods frum 10 to 1". Meaning ROADS from 10 to 1.

I am extremely curious to see where he goes from here, because knowing him he's not likely to move on to 10 to 20 due to the sheer quantity of work involved. Then again, he's been so excited about this, he might decide it's worth the work to produce such masterpieces.

Taunting fate

Well, my last post made it seem like everything was going along pretty smoothly at our Casa de Chaos, didn't it? Clearly, I should have included some of the glitches that occur, because fate (or someone who hates me) decided to throw us a major glitch at the last minute...our after school babysitter quit with one day's notice VIA TEXT. Sunday afternoon, I glanced at my phone and noticed that she had left me three text messages. When I viewed them, I think I could actually feel my blood boiling. I'm usually the calming force in this family, but I had to put my phone down in another room just so I didn't call her and scream obscenities at her. (And I would like to thank those near and dear to me who offered additional ones I hadn't thought of. Laughter definitely helps put things in perspective.) Because it's mostly my life that this kind of thing affects. I had to rearrange my schedule and cancel appointments this week to find prospective candidates, interview them, call their references, and now call them back to tell them whether or not they have the job.

So, long story short, the one we now call "doofus" worked for us Monday since we had no one else, I explained as calmly as I could (Dan went for a run so that no police had to be called in) how furious we were and why, and how she probably could have handled it MUCH better (she's 28 for god's sake!) while she tried to defend herself, saying that she had to do what was best for her (she was offered a tutoring job at the school where she teaches), and then I told her I just had nothing more to say about it and she left. I spent $135 on two online sitter services, contacted about 15 potential sitters, interviewed four, and picked one who lives within walking distance of us and will start Monday.

However, I'm not willing to mess with the fates or gods or whoever else wants to use me as a pawn in their board game, so here is full disclosure of the things I didn't mention in the last post:

1) The laundry is being done on an emergency basis at best, accompanied by all the problems you'd expect with such a plan. One morning I had to dig a pair of pants out of the dirty laundry for Reece, and that's when I realized that he only had about three pairs to his name that fit him. A semi-expensive trip to Carters followed.
2) I had to ask neighbors to take Reece in the morning three different days because my brain didn't comprehend that those 9:30 meetings meant there was no way I'd be able to take him to the bus stop at 8:55. I have since signed him up for twice a week before-care.
3) We've eaten out or ordered in close to half the days in the past two weeks. And eaten the leftovers or make-your-own-sandwiches the other days. Even though we're still getting a full bag of food from our CSA. I'm not even going to list here what I've thrown away.
4) There's just no way we're going to get to an apple orchard together this year. 
5) Reece's Halloween costume is right off the rack at Old Navy, and Greyson doesn't even have one.
6) I'm responsible for half of the cookie dough package being empty.
7) On a related note, I haven't exercised in at least a week and a half.

I know there are lots more, but I think I'll save them for a post a week just to keep a proper balance in the universe. On the grand scheme of things, of course, my problems are completely inconsequential. A very good friend of a friend died recently leaving a young family, and I've been watching all the It Gets Better videos with appreciation and sympathy.But sometimes, it feels good to wallow in my small world of crazy until someone makes me laugh and I vent in my blog and then I can move on.

Ambling into October

Reece and a neighbor at our block party - the city sends a fire truck or police car or both if you register the block party with them (they also provide blockers for the ends of the street), and the kids love it every year

I haven't posted lately because there just really hasn't been much to say. I find the minutia of our lives to be pretty all-consuming of my time and energy, but I'm pretty sure it would be incredibly boring to anyone outside our household. We've settled into a routine that, while varying from day to day, repeats itself week to week like we're stuck in some kind of time loop.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the kids and I get up and going and head to our respective schools. The slight variation occurs on Wednesdays when Greyson has to pack a lunch and carry his French horn to the bus stop because he has band practice during lunch. Then the babysitter comes after school to be with the kids until Dan relieves her around 6pm and I arrive home shortly thereafter and immediately make dinner for the starving crowd. Thursdays I usually work from home, and Reece has ice skating lessons after school, plus Dan works late so the kids and I often have creative meals for dinner. Fridays I leave early and Dan gets the kids out the door, then I get home in time to meet Reece's bus. Saturdays we sometimes have an activity, I try to get to the farmer's market, and we do a lot of chores around the house and try to veg out. Sundays are Sunday school and sometimes church, then Dan is consumed by the Browns game from 12:45 until 4:30 while the boys and I occupy ourselves in various (usually pretty unproductive) ways. I did get Wii Carnival Games through a swap (via swap.com), so we've been playing that a lot on rainy days. And then Monday starts all over again.

I did get pretty productive last weekend, making duvet covers for both boys' beds out of jersey material sheets, and I reorganized (for probably the 10th time) my clothes closet (which also serves as our medicine/linen closet for the master bath).

 Reece's duvet. He won the "green war" this time.

 Greyson's duvet. Dan calls it the blood-red bed. Pretty cool for Halloween at least.

 Half of my closet. I first repurposed some Itso items I had in the basement and then realized I needed more, so what was supposed to be a cost-free endeavor did not end that way. As usual.

It felt great to get those tasks done, and the boys actually seem to be sleeping better with their new bed covers. An explanation: Neither boy has been using his top sheet on his bed unless it happens to be made of the jersey material, and even in that case it was ending up in a squooshed pile by their toes and I was having to wash their blankets every week or two. So I decided this was a better solution, and I couldn't find any ready-made jersey material duvets through online searches. I found some jersey sheet sets on sale at Target, got the kids to pick their colors, and sewed two flat sheets together to make the covers. The bonus is that now we have two fitted sheets for each bed in the same color and material as well as some pillowcases, and I think it all cost me way less than any regular duvet cover plus sheets would have. In fact, their beds are so cozy now that Dan and I have been threatening to sleep there instead of them!

And finally, on the farming front, we've pretty much let the garden go back to nature. The squirrels demolished the sunflowers, and the disappointment in not getting the seeds for ourselves was made up for by watching the sheer determination and creativity of the squirrels' adventures in trying to reach the seeds. Wish I had gotten video.

However, we are still harvesting a few items before they rot or animals get them. Here's today's take:

These are each actually only about 3 inches in length, and odds are good that the eggplants will end up going directly into the garbage in a few days. Might have the tomato for lunch, though.