waiting and creating.
Cape Cod Children's Museum.....before the doors open...
number one seller...white sailor's monkey fist.
Another fine seller!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Woods walk to tire out the pooches.
Fitz watching Daisy bolt through the woods in pursuit of deer or other delightful scent!
Good sniffing.
Trails...marked.....look from a distance like a cartoon ghost seems to be shouting "BOO!" ......maybe I should get glasses. Even with glasses I would think "in cartoon."
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Family
So, here I am living a quiet life with a lovely family. Biff is a great husband. He and I make a great pair...we both know we're not perfect so that cuts out the middleman and lots of stress. We have to laugh...at ourselves. Thankfully, we can call attention to each others' flaws and we know we mean no harm...if anything it gives us pause....to consider what it's like to live with the flaws of each other. Get it? I think I got that right.
I have lots to do with this family made up of 1 husband and me, one wife (we're not polygymists...although I'm sure it sounds tempting for women,,,,since there are lots more people available to clean the dust bunnies. The husband? what's the deal with that? How on earth does he keep track of his wives....or his 347 kids?) oops I digress..... Our family has one husband, one wife, one girl. one boy, two golden retrievers, 2 kitties and one fish.
We have 2 kids, not 347. Some days it feels like keeping up with 347. Even 2 kids have plenty of needs....or demands....depending on the mood swings and energy of teenagers Teens have lots of places to go and people to see and time to squeeze it all in..... in THEIR mind. Then we have 2 parents who seem to be here primarily to squash all of the teen plans. Not really. It just seems that way....to them....the opposing team. As the coaches say, "There's no "I" in TEAM".....on a day that T.J. was feeling too tired for practice, I brought up that coach speak, " -T-E-A-M-"...T.J. looked sincerely at me and said, " Yup. But mom, there is and M and an E in TEAM. And I need some ME time." He actually had a point.
Since we're here to set some limits and have some boundaries and grow these people into fine, well adjusted, balanced, sensitive new age, well rounded, serving, giving adults so that they may then follow in our footsteps.....or run the other way......and still, be the best people on the planet. Not too much pressure. On any given day it could be thought to be CRAZY to even think that can be accomplished.
With many, many, many given days and lots of prayers and patience, and a sense of humor, it may actually be possible. Possible. Even likely. But don't forget the flaws. After all, the flaws are in the gen pool whether we like it or not. Mostly good flaws....as I see it. See. That's precisely why we must have a sense of humor......to live with all of our inherited flaws. Generations and generations of a variety of fine, well bred, highly educated, intelligent flaws. Only the best for our family!
Always a friendly hello and some interesting conversation. Like an old time general store, I never know who I'll meet and what news or interesting stories I'll hear. Dogs love it there and they're greeted with a warm welcome too.
My favorite treat...Ashlawn Farm coffee...at the farm in Old Lyme, CT.
Ashlawn Farm, Old Lyme,CT.
Monday, November 8, 2010
A sailor's knot, worn as a necklace or used as key chain. These are made by our kids. They are taking orders now. $6.00 each in a variety of colors. During our summer with friends, the 4 kids started a business named "Cataumet Knots." The kids have been invited to appear at The Cape Cod Children's Museum this week!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Our hour
Sleep. That's the greatest gift of daylight savings time. We just don't love having our days end so early. It's a wierd change. It's hard to adjust to the darkness. The days fly by. The night seems to begin....after lunch. Darkness. I crave sunshine...always. We'll adjust. We will all adjust. For now, I'm just happy for the hour.
Homecoming
It's late. We're all ready for bed. Tonight we're all grateful for daylight savings time and and extra hour of sleep. Life is busy as we all know. We've gone from Halloweenmania last weekend with Election Day off from school to this weekend filled with hustling and bustling for the homecoming dance. Now that everyone is safely tucked into bed I can breathe again.
T.J. barely acknowledged the crazy hype of the homecoming happenings. He brought his money to school to purchase a ticket to the dance. After school, he said that his freshman friends had all decided not to go. It didn't seem to be a big deal. Lots of the boys' moms had no idea about the dance. It may have slipped by us had we not had our social director, Grace keeping us on our toes. When T.J. came home with the news that the guys had decided to pass. Grace was not surprised. Last year the freshman boys didn't bother either. It's a guy thing. My mom thing was relief. T.J. has to be up and out early to get to sailing tomorrow. Thankfully, he was just as happy to be home tonight.
This week has been a blur...Biff had travel here and there,...I had it noted in my phone calendar. At one point during the week when we spoke I was surprised to hear that he was on his way home. His plans had changed the here and there of the travel and my brain was still in the here without making it to the there where he had already been. Did you get that? I'm still not sure where he was! JK as Grace says. "Just Kidding"....kind of.
My plans changed this week too. My new blog group was meeting Thursday night. T.J. arrived home from school with headache, sore throat and ready for bed. I wasn't far off from that either. Biff hadn't arrived home. I saw my library blogging friend on his way to the gathering. I let him know that Murphy's Law had just come into play. I had to go with that intuitive feeling, be home. Be quiet. I did. T.J. slept through til the morning. Me too. Grace went to sleep early. Biff was exhausted. We were a family who needed peace, quiet and sleep.
Quiet is good. We all need it. Some days I crave it when I'm least likely to make it happen. I try to stay tuned in to my own needs. Sometimes as a mom it seems to elude me. But there are moments that can save me. My ever peaceful Maxwell House moment....even though that's not my brand...I remember the commercial. That quiet moment sitting with my coffee. Biff is still not sure whether it's the coffee or the moment that makes my day....I know that it's the moment.
That quiet moment is like the pulse of the day. If I get that peace in those few moments, I'm taking care of myself and feel fueled for the rest of the day. Fueled with quiet and calm. Other days are more like chasing that calm. Days when my life is up to everyone else....even if I try to grab for some control. It's just the ebb and flow, the yin and yang, the black and white ...
So, now I have quiet. It took awhile to get this quiet. Busy-ness. Just lots of people to see and places to go and dogs to walk and life to live and E-bay to mail and cough drops to buy and groceries to gather and phones to charge and trash bags to fill and laundry to do and showers to scrub and..........blurrrrrrrr. Friday T.J. was home sick. Grace home from school and keeping me informed of the plans, changing with every text and phone call. Biff was home. Friday night I began painting a bathroom. Note to self: keep the black and white kitty outside of the room we're painting.... I painted the whole thing while Biff and T.J. watched a movie. Grace popped in and out with more planning and possibilities. Grace paraded through trying out her heels. We woke up this morning with Daisy's big eyes suggesting it was time to go outside. Fitz was ready. Biff made coffee.
That's when our dance began! Early this morning. Taking care of life. Lots of details of life. Things. Stuff. Life. The kinds of things that fill up a day....but when anyone asks what you did today, you can barely answer....unless you go on a roll with stream of consciousness.....until their eyes roll back in their head. Kind of like when my mom used to give me a blow by blow description of her transactions at the grocery store. Loved her but couldn't keep it from her that she was boring me to death with details of a bruised tomato! We laughed about it....but she told me her long, draggy story anyway. I think we all do it. Just to validate our pathetic existence up to our elbows in some of the minutae of life.
Isn't that my blog. Oh my gosh,...I have just described my blog. Blah, blah, blah...blog. I love my blog and I want it back...excuse me but Fitzy is gettin into some leftover Halloween candy. Lots of rustling ....for real. This dog should have been a bomb sniffer. She stopped. It must have been wrappers. She's already eaten a pumpkin today.....oh, and another lipstick. It's all a blurrrrrrr.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Vote!
Here we are. We've made it to the big day! We've made it to Election Day! Hooray! Sadly, I'm not thrilled because I have the right to vote....a true priviledge. I'm delighted to know that we will no longer have to watch these negative advertisements. It's like eating Cheetos. After a million...and one extra Cheeto....I'm just fine without having one for another year or more.
Same is true for these advertisements. The cutting down, dredging up and throwing out every little mistake, misjudgement and family drama makes me depressed. Really, our teens comment on these advertisements and the people who are running our country. It's hard enough for us, with voting priviledges, to see these people on radio, television and print ads for months at a time. It's kind of sad to have our kids see that these adults, who could be role models, are cheaters. liars and spouting polital speak.
Political speak is a little like teen talk. They may be great people who mean the best....they just leave out little details and lie by ommission. As a mom in the "mommy mafia." as our kids call it, we're on to them. Hopefully we think to ask the right questions. Thankfully, there are enough moms and dads around to keep asking.
Last weekend we had some of our favorite kids over. The plans were spontaneous. We knew that our kids wanted to have some fun on mischief night, the night before Halloween. I never even knew about "mischief night"....because either I was such a wonderful child or because Catholic School kids were left out of the loop. After all, the nuns were more concerned with the day after Halloween, All Souls Day....a Holy Day in the Catholic Church. Another sad tidbit....I really thought the day was to recover from our Halloween antics! Don't tell Sr. Maria Nicholas!
As parents, we're not troubled by mischief night with our kids. Their mischief is here in the neighborhood and innocent enough to have our neighbors still willing to hand out candy! That's how we know our kids will keep their "mischief" in line. Candy is a great motivator of behavior. We went out with our little mischief makers in training....while a friend taught them how to create mischief with boundaries. That little training has gone a long way.
Saturday night, one of the moms checked in with me before dropping off her sweet daughter! As we spoke about the get together, it came to our attention that she was lacking one piece of the puzzle....the mischief! We laughed. Her daughter is a good kid. A very good kid. Yet, she failed to mention one little thing. Her mom was o.k. with it....even though she went to Catholic School too!
The only problem that we had with mischief night....which lasted about one half hour....we're lacking bathroom tissue!
Grace and T.J. had the kids back to the house for popcorn and a scary movies. I loved having them. I love the kids being here. Biff and I enjoy our kids and really enjoy their friends. It's so nice to have them. It's nice to get to know all of them. That's all we ever wanted...having a house where everyone's welcome.
The good news...even though the space set up for Grace and T.J.'s friends was quite literally washed away by the flood in April.
Thankfully it works out....they can take over the family room and still have a great time. Thankfully.
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