Mat Show #?

Fab, fab show at Taste of Chicago tonight.

Thank you, Mat Kearney, for the many memorable date nights you've entertained my hubby and I.

He has a busy July and August tour and is probably coming near you.  Here's his latest video.  Visit his website to get a good listen to his tunes.

Right Now...

...I am enjoying Croatian chocolate and Chinese Boba Tea (while my Lebanese dinner digests) on the 33rd floor overlooking a spectacularly clear Chicago.

Yes I am.  Yes we are.  He and I.  Me and him. 

And our chocolates and tea.

Training Wheels

Pardon my black, greasy fingers.  I just used tools.  Even tore up my clothes in the great feat of Putting Training Wheels on the Bike.


Paul was working this evening and Reuben needed training wheels put on the red bike.  I am woman.  I can do this.

Let's see...  Where are the training wheels?  Found them after ten minutes.  


Now, what tools and equipment do I need?  Got the bike and the wheels.  Dug through the tool drawer and found a wrench with a circle on the end.  First wrench I tried and it was the right size.  Yah.  I can do this.


Wheels amazingly attached and secure.  Reuben gives them a test run.  Chain pops off.  Nice.


I remember back to my tomboy days of reapplying my own bike chain and I know I can do this.  But, see, now the training wheels are in the way for me to remove the chain guard so I can get to the chain.  My childhood bike had neither training wheels, nor chain guard.  This is harder.


Find a screwdriver, remove chain guard and loosen training wheels enough to fix chain.  A wasp comes to buzz in my face, sun is burning down, and something bites my ankle.  But the boy must have his training wheels.


Done and we're off around the block with much rejoicing.


He hits a bump and the aforementioned loosened training wheel rotates and becomes nonfunctioning.  Should have put the wrench in my back pocket like I thought.


Back to the garage to readjust and tighten. 


Lap two around the block, his handle that used to have a rubber covering, back before it had fallen over a gazillion times from older brother's reign, bumps my thigh and pokes two holes in my nicest pair of capris.  Reminded me of when I taught first grade and would bump into the short filing cabinet by my desk and snag my dresses.  


But, Rube is smiley and confident and free to ride.


And I have grease marks on my hands to show my accomplishments.  Yah I do.

The Day

I love Paul.  He is truly my favorite, and I hope you're not saddened that I picked him instead of you.  I still am quite fond of you and would have enjoyed your company on our Grand Family Outing today.  It's Paul's Birthday today.  And we've been loving him lots.  Ready for oodles of photos?

Yesterday, I got a chocolate craving, like maybe some chocolate chip cookies would be nice.  But it's in the low 90s here, so one cannot just turn on her oven for a bitty craving.  So No Bake Cookies were the thing to make.

And it just so happens that they are Paul's favorite.  It says so right on the recipe card that Paul's mom gave me ten years ago.  So it must be true.  So my chocolate craving was satisfied and Paul felt special thinking I made them just for him.

This morning, Paul had a bit of work to do, so Pete and I got to work on the Birthday Cookie.  Finished project will be below.

We then RAV4ed it to Turkey Run.  And here it gets funny.  On our way to Turkey Run State Park, a mama turkey and her six babies cross the country road we're cruising on.

I got my camera out in time to get mama's back side, but the babes had scooted into the corn field.  At this point we chuckled as we made the connection that we saw a turkey on the way to Turkey Run on Paul's birthday, who loves (the country of) Turkey.

But there's more...

In our backseat are two boys (you could call them turkeys) wearing their Turkish soccer jerseys.  Peter wore it on purpose because he thought Paul would like it, then Reuben changed to match.

Turkey #1

Turkey #2

(with bug bites on his face from blueberry picking)

We had lunch at the inn where we presented our presents to Paul while our food was being prepared.  Peter could not wait a minute longer.

What did Paul get?

Three books about Turkey at Turkey Run State Park, just minutes after a turkey crossed the road, with two Turkish-jersey-wearing turkeys in our backseat.
See what fun we had?

On to the trails.

Trail 4 today.
 And 5.
And 8.
And 3.

This is just to remind you what I look like since the photographer is rarely photographed.

Cute boys on a log.

Then back home to the Cookie Eating Ceremony.  Peter insisted on the "31" candles.  He and Reuben worked very hard on the icing decor.


That was great.  Paul's great.  I have a lovely family.

Reuben knows that he is next in the birthday lineup, so two and a half months of saying, "No, it's not your birthday today, but soon."  And distracting him onto another topic...

 Like,  "Why were you sleeping under a sleeping bag in the dining room last night?"

Not Worthy of a Title

I've got nothing.

No interesting meals.  We had angel hair pasta with feta, shrimp, and avocado tonight.  Tasty though.

No fantastic school activities.  We've been doing spelling and math for two days, remember?  Although I am now loving this new system of being more unstructured and going with what is interesting to Peter and working more at his pace.  And since he loves it too, it makes for a rich learning time and a happy family.  I feel secure that he is progressing appropriately through third grade since we are keeping track and he does have to complete some math and spelling before losing himself in another science project or Spanish DVD.

I did complete my artistic bathroom frame art.  Took a couple pictures, but our computer is slowing down and they won't download or upload or load in any form.

So that means no pics of Reuben climbing the walls in the bathroom like Spider Man either.

But I do have a quote from Peter.  One expressing great awe and amazement toward Reuben.  Ready?


"Woah!  Awesome mess Reuben."


A mother doesn't want to hear this.  An awesome mess?

But at the same time, how neat that Peter was sincerely impressed with his little brother's efforts.

We're off to a couple book stores in the morning to redeem their summer reading programs.  More free books!  Then to the Children's Museum and the Museum of Art.  All totally school.  We'll catch a planetarium show for our astronomy unit and gaze at a couple real Monets, our current artist of study.

Then do you know what's happening Friday??  Friday??  Anyone??  Oh sweet, sweet man.

And next week??  Ooo, I am really excited for next week.  Here's the mix for that:  3-day getaway with my favorite person, adventuring in a big city, oodles of interesting food, Mat Kearney show, condo in downtown, summertime...  Know what we're doing?

 I am giddy in my belly.

Frosty for You, Me, and Them

Near a Wendy's this weekend?  Buy a Frosty or seven today or tomorrow and 50 cents from each one will go towards adoption of children in our country's foster care system.

Details at their website here.

Yum.

Recap

Did not run a marathon, but I am eating Cookie Dough Ice Cream.  A different kind of feel-good.

So it's Friday and Peter's little chart of assignments should be all completed.  Ha.  He has sixteen more assignments.

 You can learn a lot about your kid with a chart like this.

No math or spelling, please.  But let's do every lesson that involves reading.

He said to me, "What are we going to do about the things I didn't get done?" in a hopeful voice that we'll just throw it out and start anew next week and he'll never have to do a math or spelling lesson.

In a cheery, we-can-do-it voice I answered, "We'll just keep going until it's all done and then we'll start over with a new sheet..  It may take us two years to finish third grade."  And I let him chew on that idea.

Really, taking two years to finish would be right fine since he's a year ahead and we see no advantage to that.  Slow down.  Let him love life and learning and his family.

We may not have done some essentials like math and spelling, but we did...

practice our acrobatics.

 That's like P.E.

And we remembered the grand times of the Barbarians by having our own barbarian feast.

I was putting a whole chicken into the crock pot to later use the meat in Grandma Robb's enchilada recipe
- one of Paul's favorites.

But Peter saw me getting it ready and
asked if we could eat it barbarian style,

as in the barbarians who invaded
the Western Roman Empire.

He started using all this history lingo.

The Visigoths and Vandals and such.

How could I say no to making a meal a learning opportunity?

So I tossed in some carrots and potatoes
and changed the menu.

Insert picture of confused Paul here.

"We're not having Grandma's enchiladas?"

 Armed with only (butter) knives

in true barbarian style.

Go Dodgers

(Shirt designed by Alex, my brother's wife's brother.

Get yours at Target today!)

This is a Roman column made from sugar cookie dough.

We destroyed (ate) it cuz we're barbarians and that's what we did back in the day.

So we did do math by making this recipe, yah?

We still have some adjustments to make to find the optimum schooling situation.  Peter did say that maybe the lessons that have four circles... maybe we should do one of them each morning after we do Bible.  So, he's catching on.

Figuring It Out

I need to run a marathon.  Right now.  I have so much pent up internal stress and I need it to leave my body.  Running a marathon seems like it would help.

Why the stress?

Homeschooling, year four, day two.

I'm trying something new.  Peter loves it so far.  Me, it's so not my style and it's stressing me out.

Last year, I made a schedule.  From 8:00 to 8:30 we read the Bible and work on math facts, 8:30 to 9:00 we do phonics...  Structured, planned, and much peace dwelt within me.

This year, I made a Bingo card with all the subjects/assignments we need to complete for the week.  Peter can pick and choose as he likes, with the goal of getting it all done by Friday.  He really likes this freedom to choose.  I can't stand it.  We're going to have to modify.  I need to be prepared, to know what's coming.

I'd been reading about Interest-Led Learning, see.  Let the child's interest guide your schooling and he'll love school and learn so much!  Uh-uh.  Can't do it.  He's just going to have to fit into a scheduled box and hate learning.

My big problem last year was that Peter takes forever to accomplish anything.  His speed is slow and distracted and mine is quick and efficient.  See the conflict?  So I had to schedule him to give him an end time.  We have to move on now.  But then I'm on him the whole time trying to get him to focus and work.  Not a great learning environment.

In my Sunday School class we've been talking about our kids and who they are.  I should embrace Peter's slowness, so says Linda Anderson of Mom to Mom.  Yes I should.  But it's going to drive me nuts.

So, I thought I'd try to embrace Peter and the slow pace in which he moves with this Bingo card schedule.  Oh, we only read the Bible, did our History lesson, and learned some Spanish today?  Great.  What about the grammar, spelling, math, science, reading, art, and music that we didn't touch?  Later, right?  But the organized, structured, detail-minded brain in me is screaming, "When??  What if he never chooses grammar?  Who would?  What if this one week's worth of work takes a month??"  Some would say I seriously need to detox from being a public school teacher. 

So, that's where I am.  A recovering sick person, launching a program that is everything opposite of who I am, and Paul's invited four families over tonight.  My house is a homeschooling mess and the lawn is in desperate need of a mow.

Peter just now walked in and said, "This Bingo schedule is working out, Mom.  Don't you think?"

"Um, you think so?"

"Yeah, don't you think it's working out?"  Forcing me to give him an answer.

"Uh, I'm thinking about it.  It may need some tweaking.  T-W-E-A-K-I-N-G."

Ok, I didn't really spell out 'tweaking'.  That's a You've Got Mail quote.  They were having lunch at a little table at a sidewalk cafe, trying to figure out the meaning of the last email she got...

Look at that.  I just took myself to a lovely, dreamy place and I feel so much better.

I'll keep you posted.  I've got some tweaking to do.  And some Manicotti Cordon Bleu to eat.


P.S. I would like to say that I am quite impressed with myself because, as I mentioned at the top, this is an internal stress.  I don't think Peter has a clue.  Which is good.  But we've got to find a mix of he and I before this internalness spews and makes a mess of things.

Tonight

My very near future (as soon as I hit 'publish post') involves a piece of strawberry cake and Little Women, the book version.

Nighty night.

Bathroom Art

Here's a crafty project I started a week ago when I found a bunch of frames at a garage sale.  I got them all for under $3.

I painted them all white and then I got sick.  So they've been cluttering up our laundry room floor.  But my goal is to hang some of them in our bathroom.  An artsy way to tone down the dark color we painted.

Kind of like this...

But I'm still just not feeling great.  Not even mildly good.  Paul has been a Super Champ doing more than his fair share of chores while I cough and get dizzy and rest.

Hopefully the frames will survive another week in the laundry room  And hopefully they'll look cute and not lame on our walls.  And hopefully this pain in my face and teeth is not a sinus infection.  Oh, I discovered new muscles in my abdomen - they're sore from coughing.  Don't come for a visit just yet.  Wait until me and my bathroom are put together.

The Weekends

I'm feeling better, though my chest burns when I cough and I get light-headed on a whim.  I'm thankful my kids are old enough to survive when I'm down.

Looking ahead, Paul's gone all day tomorrow and the boys are I are working the homeschool booth at a local Strawberry Festival.  Come give us your money and we'll let you toss a ping pong ball into a fish bowl.  You may even get to hear Steve Trent and Small Town.

Yep, I just checked.  They'll be there at 1:30 -
when we're there!

Sweet.

Then Sunday, we'll enjoy some more local talent when we go see Alice in Wonderland at the live theatre.  The girl around the corner is in it even.

Looking back, we went to the Asian Fest last weekend.  Pretty neat.  Pictures, please...

Lots of performers, one of my favorite entertainment forms.

Dancers from India

Children dancing from Vietnam

It rained off and on

and it was an outdoor stage.

Then to the food area for Filipino yumminess.

Pete and I shared a kabob

so I'm about to slide the meat off with my fork.

With my eyes closed, apparently.

Eating it off the stick is another option.

That's his Turkish soccer jersey.

Bummer they're not in the World Cup.

Although South Korea plays tomorrow morning.

Next, we went inside and made Indonesian Shadow Puppets.

Paul is using Peter's dragon puppet.

Reuben is holding up his crab.

The light shines on it and through the cellophane to the audience on the other side of the curtain.

I imagine that a professional show with Shadow Puppets would be pretty fantastic.

And the traditional

Sleeping On The Way Home From The City picture.
Fiercely gripping his balloon and propping his legs up on the seat in front of him.

Amazing.

Immunity

Really.  At the exact moment a woman becomes a Mom, Jeff Probst should adorn her neck with the Immunity Necklace.  A mother's body should no longer be available to get sick.  It's just not right.

I'm sick.  Can you tell?  I thought it was just a little cold, possibly allergies.  But this weary body of mine is wiped out.  My internal temperature is flaming and I feel maybe like a Survivor contestant whose body is freaking out from...

Oh, I can't even write any more.  I've got to go back to being horizontal.  Someone enjoy this lovely summer evening.

Summer Reading

The boys are involved in several summer reading programs.

A nearby library has the kids reading different genres of books this summer.

So we've got books on space, Helen Keller, baseball,

poetry, Caldecott winners, William Harrison, joke books...

I love it that we're exploring new parts of the library

and that Peter is all about it.

It's not forced fun.

It's just fun.

Peter cannot read enough.

He has bookmarks in several chapter books

and stacks of picture books all over the house.

His current stack includes:
Choose Your Own Adventure books,
Little House on the Prairie book #4,
and one about McGwire and Sosa's homerun records.

Reuben has learned from watching Peter

that reading books equals getting a prize at the library.

So he's bringing us more books to read to him too.
His faves are:
Peter Rabbit,
Popcorn,
and the Berenstain Bears.

We go a lot.

I like to be out and about.

But when we're home

all this book reading is so relaxing and calming.

We do a lot of couch cuddling with books

and the boys read/listen to books on CD together

and we play audio books in the car

and the boys read on their own.

It's so nice.

Books are just a great invention.

Thank you, ancient book creator.

I just read the other day that the Romans were the first to change from using scrolls to sewing paper into books as we do now.

Double sided that way, see.

Time for a Vacation Perhaps

Paul and I are a little off today.  I keep dropping things, then hitting my head when I bend down to pick up the dropped thing, and then my spoon goes in the trash instead of the cherry pits, and I hit my head getting into the car...  I'm just out of sorts.  And Paul joined the club when he lost the eggs today.

He found them in the freezer.

Like a kid proud of the worms he dug up,

he showed me a peeled frozen egg.

And then he cooked it for Reuben.

I would never have thought to cook a frozen egg.

He thawed it in the microwave for 20 seconds,

then scrambled it and finished cooking it.

Who knew?

Now you do.

Adoption News

I bought diapers today.  I did, and it feels good to just say so. 

No, I don't have a baby.  Nor a dog.  (I babysat for a family once who used them on their dog.)  And, sadly, our adoption wait has been extended.  It was 12-18 months, and now it's a solid 18 months.  So that takes us to August of 2011 to be matched with a child, then 6 more months until travel, which means...

I have a babe in my arms around February 2012.  

Oh man, that's exactly five years after we went to Korea to get Reuben.

But, I'm ready.  I've got two packs of diapers.  That's all I'll need, right?  I got them for $1.50 (Huggies, 46 dipes) and $0.37 (CVS brand, 34 dipes).  See how I couldn't not buy them?  And while I wait I can hug them and feel that deep sense of mothering in my chest.

Want some more drama?

Word is that Korea is closing their international adoption program in 2012.  They want to have all their babies adopted within Korea.  Yes, Korea.  Good decision.  As long as you truly love them as sons and daughters.  Can you change your country's mindset in the next year and a half?

What this means for us is that we're cutting it close to have our adoption fulfilled.  Which Paul and I decided is fine.  Maybe this process has been God's way of pacing us for moving to Tky.  We'll see.  We'd love to provide a family, a home, and love to another child, but it's out of our hands.  We committed to this program and are locked in until we receive a referral or the program closes.

For the meantime, I'll pray for Korea and hug my Huggies.

Well, isn't that appropriate.