Bye, Bence

Today I realized that these three things are mutually exclusive: feeling patient, feeling cute, and feeling productive. I always want them all! I usually only get one at a time though. Today seems to be a productive day. I suppose I should be glad. In the name of being productive, here’s a bloggeroo.

We just said goodbye to Spencer. He’s starting first grade tomorrow, so no more carefree summer days of babysitting bliss. Ha, what I mean is I’m down to two kids again. It’s already kind of strange, and Spencer has barely been gone an hour! Like most things in LIFE, having Spencer over for 20-30 hours each week this summer was hard in some ways but great in other ways. Even though we don’t have any kids in our family starting school this year, it feels like we’re losing that older brother to school, and I’m wondering how many times over the next few weeks I’m going to have to answer questions like “is Spencer coming over today?” and “where’s Spencer?” (or, in Rose’s case, “is Bence toming oder day?” and “weer Bence?”).

This week I tried to take a few pictures of the three kids playing together. It was hard because Spencer is an awesome cheeser when he sees a camera, and they usually play so well together that I’m too busy getting something else done before the next disagreement to waste time picture-snapping. Nonetheless, there are a few photos from this week that more or less describe our summer days at home with Bence. At some point, Rose voluntarily started calling Spencer Bence for short, even though the rest of us always call him Spencer. I kind of love it.

Rose took this picture of the buddies.

Jay took this one

Ha, boys TOTALLY don’t automatically put their arms around each other and smile for a picture like girls do. Awkward!

They’re happier (and most photogenic) as ninjas.

Reading and waiting for Spencer to arrive one morning…nice one, Jay. Usually I managed to get Jay and Rose potty’d, dressed, and breakfasted before Spencer came over.

[it wasn’t easy]

Playdough! This batch has lasted for months in a baggie in our fridge. Amazing.

Rose’s hair is getting so long.

Playdough intensity—he would not look up for even one quick picture.

The performer. He was cracking me up!

Pita pizza party! Spencer brought his lunch every day, but every now and then we whipped up something tasty for lunch. They adore these easy-peasy pita pizzas.

It doesn’t look like much, but they are rather tasty.

Coloring time. I went into super stealth-mama mode for this one. They’re so cute when they’re playing happily all together. Maybe that’s because it wasn’t always this tame.

Bye, Bence!

Hello, Preschool. Jay’s friends from church told him all about preschool, and he was dying to go when he turned 4, but I simply don’t feel like it’s worth the money. Jay is worth it, but preschool was not. I only get him to myself for another year anyways, so I’m keeping him! I’ve spent the past few months talking up home preschool and Jay is pretty excited about it. To make it feel more official to him, I made a preschool calendar for us to change every day.

Looking online for ideas was a mistake. You can get sucked into the black hole of Pinterest Preschool Possibilities and never surface. It’s scary in there. Even amazon.com, my normal Pinterest-alternative was a little much. Some people spend millions on such simple things! I exed out of Pinterest and Amazon and just started free-handing it. The total cost of this was $1 for the pocket chart (Target’s dollar section), plus sales tax and I think 3 pieces of cardstock and a tiny bit of printer ink. We have only played with it once so far, but it seemed to do the job just fine.

My preschool plan (as I’ve mentioned before) is to start each day with the calendar and letter/sound/word/number of the day and then do whatever activity or project that we feel like. We use the term preschool very loosely around here. I’m excited to teach Jay and Rose officially about Real Things, because they are such enthusiastic clever little pupils.

Rewind to this weekend for a minute—it’ll all come together at the end…

We went to Seattle this weekend and stopped at Ikea. This was the first time that Jay and Rose were big enough and potty trained enough to go into the kids play place.  I was surprised that they were ok with us leaving them because lately they’ve kind of had issues with that now and then. But they had a blast while we wandered through the crowds shopping.

I hid behind some carts and took this picture of them through the window. They labeled the kids so thoroughly it made me think of the Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

The spoils! We got a cube shelf system and an $8 side table which is the same size as their $20 kids table (which broke) but way sturdier, and various art supplies/kidstuff.

How to spend a long Sunday morning before 1pm church? Let’s put Ikea shelves together, together! We were actually late to church because we got caught up…

The kids filled all the squares with blankets and stuffed animals while we put the finishing screws in.

Before:

…

After:

The bins and drawers that I wanted to put in the cubes were out of stock at Ikea, so we’re making do with what we’ve got for now. We actually conveniently already had some black Ikea bins (on the bottom) that were made to fit theses cubes. WOW, it is so nice to have storage in the kitchen. After a mere 2 days with these shelves, I already love having my art supplies right by the table instead of way far away in the hall closet like they were before.

Here’s our preschool nook. Isn’t it cute? I mean, in its own ramshackle way, with papers stuck to the wall and homemade cardboard kitchen items on the bench. Up till recently, I was scared of hanging kiddy things in the dining area because I didn’t want to damage the décor. Then I realized that there really isn’t much décor to damage in there or to make it look junky. Luckily I got over that. So I duct taped that USA poster to the wall and tied the calendar to the bookshelf with string. It’s just what we need, and so far I don’t feel like I’m compromising color schemes or anything.

In case you didn’t notice it before, this is the amazing $8 plastic side table. They’re using the chairs from our old broken Ikea kids table (and a stool my Grama made). Awesome.

There you have it. Bring on the school year! I plan to put a wall shelf above the cubes to get a bit of extra out-of-kids-reach storage.

Hopefully that works out better than the last shelf we hung in the kitchen.

A Mom Day

It has been one of those mom days where I feel like I’m running on a treadmill—using up a lot of energy but not GETTING anywhere. It’s amazing how even if I’m being super productive and energetic and happy, it’s so easy to let small obstacles/incidents mar my satisfaction of accomplishment and dampen my good mood. I’m writing a few snapshots from today so that later I can look back and see through all the haze of in-the-moment-ness to the successes hidden beneath the other Mom Stuff.

Jeff went back to school this week—teachers’ in service started on Wednesday at Sunnyside High School. So did the 2 online classes he’s taking this fall. It’s always hard to adjust to NOT having Jeff around all the time again. I like having some space in some ways, but in other ways, I miss him so much!

I just cleaned and mopped all 2.5 of our bathrooms. It was bleachy. My nostrils feel singed and my brains feel buzzy. It took longer than one Ninja Turtles episode to clean them, so Jay was asking for a snack and playing with Spencer under foot while I finished up.

Rose had two accidents in her undies today. One was a lot more than just wet. Gag. She has been so reluctant to go potty by herself for the past 2 weeks. Whenever I say “it’s time to go potty,” she either lays down and goes limp so I have to drag her bodily to the bathroom and plunk her on the potty or she runs and hides. And then she refuses to put her clothes back on by herself when she’s done. It drives me crazy! At least she always goes when I finally do get her onto the toilet (knock on wood!). Lesson: never take a potty-trained child for granted.

This week I finished Downton Abbey Season 3. Lame ending. I know exactly what they should’ve done. Then end.

Jay and Spencer have had a few physical altercations and verbal disagreements today. Jay has a big purple bruise on his forehead as a souvenir. It’s hard when a friend is over and they keep requiring parental intervention. Just PLAY! Share! Be nice!

I have been brainstorming ideas for “home preschool” this week, and I finished up my list of plans for our first section today. It’s going to be just me, Jay, and Rose. We’re going to look at our preschool list every day and pick what we feel like doing. Read a story, talk, sing, and do a project each day more or less—don’t tell Jay but basically normal life, but a little more consistent with the projects. That’s about as low-key and easy as I could make it. I’ve been talking it up to Jay, and he’s getting excited. Hopefully home preschool lives up to his hopes and dreams.

Spencer asks me questions that make no sense, like “how long is it?” And when I say “I don’t understand—how long is what?” he just repeats his question over and over at varying volumes and speeds. That communication barrier is still an utter mystery to me. I know it sounds funny though.

Spencer starts first grade on Wednesday, so we have him for 2 more days and then no more. We’ve liked having him this summer. It’ll be good and nice for me to have my own two kids to myself again, but I hope they won’t badger me too much about having Spencer over. Weekends are full enough of  “is Spencer coming over today?” as it is.

I made bread today.

Every time the kids go outside to play, they forget to close the door. They like to come in and out often. So all morning today, I was calling/yelling/begging “PLEASE CLOSE THE DOOR!” every ten minutes or so.

I used an asparagus knife today. I feel like an official resident of the Yakima Valley now. Jasen came over to borrow our wheelbarrow and while he was here he handed me an asparagus knife and helped me whack down all the awful thorny goat head plants that took over our ugly rocky side yard. We hacked and yanked at the roots and then rolled scraggly viney thorns up like a carpet. Now our trash can is full of “owie pokers.” Hopefully we can keep those noxious weeds at bay long enough to grow grass over there next spring.

Whenever I say “just a minute” or “in 5 minutes” or something like that to Jay, he asks “has it been a minute yet?” or “how many minutes are left?” or “can we ___ now?” about every 20 seconds till I do what he asks, get what he needs, etc.

I have not showered yet, and it’s after 3pm. My hair is in an amazing version of a pony tail, with 100 clips and a headband to force it up there.

We are leaving for an over night trip 3.5 hours away (to attend the wedding reception of one of Jeff’s cousins whom I’ve met like once, briefly)  in an hour and I really need to pack and tidy up. All I really want to do is sink into my chair and read.

Alas, duty calls. Onward!

Faces

This morning Jay told me that he was all “ninja turtled up:” ninja turtle socks, undies, and t-shirt. Rose immediately declared that she wanted to wear all pink today. So I helped her find a pink shirt, pink pants, and pink bows (she was distraught that her pink undies were all in the laundry).

I managed my first pony tail in more than a year and half this morning. It felt good to run with almost all of my hair  contained.

Rose took this picture—she’s getting better at photography.

This weekend I got out a box of my old horses for Jay and Rose to play with, and they’ve been clip-clopping all over the place.

Grama Leslie gave Jay some Star Wars cookie cutters a few weeks ago. Jay has been asking me to help him make Star Wars cookies every day ever since. Today I finally got out the butter-flour-sugar and we mixed up some cookies. Sugar cookies are so boring and hard to make! But they do have Darth Vader faces on them, and they actually tasted better than some sugar cookies I’ve had in the past.

Kind of creepy, but crisp and buttery.

 

Jay: I’m hungry for Yoda.
Rose: I hundy fo Whiteguy.

Marriage and Motherhood

My friend posted the link to this well-written note about handling the rigors of motherhood with the help of the Husband. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t copy and paste the actual text because it seemed like plagiarism and plus she delicately addresses things I don’t really write about on el blog. I highly recommend this note to anyone who is a MOM.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/deanna-rischer-ramsay/to-my-husband-from-your-stay-at-home-wifemom/10151810720170960

I thought it was wonderful! I know it's risky trying to express all that stuff without sounding whiny or discontented, but I thought she did a good job--just enough disclaimers (of course motherhood is the most fulfilling job ever) but not so many that they detracted from her message. Motherhood and marriage are paradoxes of love, exhaustion, exasperation, and joy!

[photo credit: Spencer]

The Lone Zucchini

Summer break is winding down. We are done with our travels and adventures. But it’s still hot outside. Blazing hot. Summer weather always lingers overlong in this valley, but that doesn’t make it easier to bear.

Even my garden has collapsed in the heat. It looks more alive than it is. It was on an automatic watering cycle with our sprinkler system, but the undersides of lots of the plants seem to have yellowed and died anyways, except for these freaky fat pumpkin and squash vines that are taking over the yard. It’s that time of year when everyone’s offering free zucchinis and nobody needs them.

I ventured forth into our crispy brown back yard with Jay the other day to explore the ghastly garden tangle, and all I found was one zucchini, one and a half puny carrots, and a single green bean. The lack of zucchinis, more than any of our other garden’s…issues, makes me feel the most like a huge horticultural failure! ANYONE can grow zucchinis! They are annoyingly abundant! Alas, but not for me. My more detailed search through the scary tangled thick vines still revealed only one Lone Zucchini.

It was a giant zucchini, but it was alone. It probably sucked the life out of all its budding brothers. Clearly we had an outlaw named the Lone Zucchini robbing our garden of abundance. Once he finished with his fellow zucchinis, he probably started feasting by night on the watermelon next door, then the corn, the watermelon, and finally the green beans and and the carrots. I don’t think I can blame the lack of tomatoes on him though. That was all my fault—I planted seeds instead of seedlings.

I couldn’t resist a little comic-ification of the outlaw—The Lone Zucchini and his sidekick mustang, C-rot:

 

I have been in a weird funk ever since we got back home from our last trip on Saturday. I just haven’t been able to transition back into normal life. Motivation is at an all-time low, along with patience and creativity. That Lone Zucchini sketch is the first somewhat-creative thing I’ve done all week.

Jeff got his wisdom teeth out on Monday, so he’s been out of commission ever since. I think his Vicodin-trance is rubbing off on me or something. I’ve been doing the bare minimum to keep our house afloat (aka floor not too messy and kids not too hungry). Everything feels so hard! Spencer has come over for 7 or 8 hours each day this week, and him plus Jay, Rose, and a semi-conscious Jeff has made me feel like I’m the Lone Parent versus 4 children:

We’ve been eating easy-but-bland dinners like tortillas, eggs, and noodles all week. It’s boring and blah, but I haven’t had any other good dinner ideas at all, which is weird for me. I’ve been in a major cooking slump all summer. I used to think I’d never need to buy another cookbook because of all the billion cooking blogs out there, but I’ve decided that I don’t trust those random blog/pinterest people that say “this is the best, fastest, easiest, yummiest thing you’ll ever make!” for every recipe they post. Sorry.

I needed a real book from a reliable source to browse, mark, and to hold in my hands.  SO, I got on Amazon and researched some quick-and-easy meal cookbooks, called my Mom for a second opinion, and ultimately ordered The America’s Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook. The ATK has served me well in the past, and as I read through this blessed cookbook today, I felt my motivation to cook real food slowly returning. Once my food-motivation started trickling back, I suddenly felt able to GO! and DO! So I sat down and whipped up a 3 week meal plan in my beloved Excel format.

This rush of productivity helped me remember all the things that I have been doing amidst the haze of summer doldrums…

I wrote and edited the Primary Program.

I vacuumed the whole house.

I ran 4 miles this morning.

I read bedtime stories 3 out of 4 nights this week!

I made 4 loaves of bread yesterday.

I budgeted our income to within an inch of its life.

I didn’t make fun of Jeff when he was loopy from the anesthesia in the car on the way home from the oral surgeon (I waited till the next day when he was a little less drugged).

I had a 15 minute dance party with Rose yesterday.

Both Jay and Rose said “I love you SO MUCH” and gave me darling kisses at bedtime.

Our AC is working like a dream.

We got our car door fixed.

I harvested that blasted zucchini, cut it up, and made two batches of zucchini bread out of it, and there’s still enough of it left for at least two more batches. BAM.

A few weeks ago my friend shared the link to this sunny blog post about embracing and enjoying each MOMENT that you do something right or good or awesome, no matter how small it is, and not letting the less-wonderful moments cloud the awesome ones. The author called it “drops of awesome” in our bucket of life or something. During the end of summer slump and my weird hazy funk, it helped to count my drops of awesome.

Apparently my ability to see the awesome is directly connected to what’s for dinner.

Food is awesome!

The Lakecation, 5.0

Where to start? 1 week, 5 kids, 9 adults, and 11 cameras. This could get lengthy if I’m not careful. Let’s be honest, it will probably be long even if I am careful. This week was lake-cation 5.0 because this was the 5th year in a row we have laked it up since I “grew up.” We did the lakey thing every summer throughout my childhood, took a few years off during the college years, and then re-started the tradition in 2009 with the grandkids. Boat, lake, house, food, games, fun, and family define the Lakecation. This year was the inaugural family gathering in the Big Beautiful New Lake House on Lake Tapps in Lake Tapps, WA.

The Lake
A few observations:
Kids and water are a good combo.
Spray on sunscreen: the best invention!

Mt. Rainier hovered on the horizon hugely.

R&R

In a pinch, a kayak can pull a stranded boat to the dock.

Mom and I took the kids on a long kayak ride to watch Grampa Charley practice wakeboarding.

This trampoline was on stilts in the middle of the cove next door. Sweet! Brad, Dani, and Mel loaded the kayaks to bursting and took the kids over. Jeff swam over with Jay to join the fun.

Gorgeous, peaceful sunsets filled the lake house’s windows every night.

[random sunset skier]

The Kids
In order of age: Steve—5, Jay—4, Dan—3, Rose—2, Chase—6 months. These cousins love playing together. It’s sweet what good friends they are even though they only see each other once or twice each year. They went tubing fearlessly behind the boat. They played endlessly together in the basement with Grama Meri’s Tinker Toys, Jay’s ninja turtles and Star Wars guys, and Rose’s ponies.

This kid-friendly tube has a handle attached to it so the kids can stand up and pretend to water ski on it.

Such a nonchalant dude.

Rose was so tiny out on that big lake! I watched her with my binoculars from the shore. She perched on that tube and rode all over the place.

3-in-1

Nose dive! Look at those faces. Ahhh!

Grama Meri has a kids only table on the porch. Their meals were always eventful.

I dare you to find two cuter nephs.

We all took turns squeezing Chase. He’s such a patient little darling.

The Speedsters
This was the first year that I did not partake in the high-speed water skimming activities. I did not even get into the boat! In the past I have always water skied and ridden tubes more out of habit than real enjoyment, so I decided to take a leaf out of my Mom’s book this year and try a low-speed lakecation. The fact that there was only one ski made that decision easier (I’m no slalom-er). I have to say, while I enjoyed the easy-paced water-wedgie-less week, I did miss the camaraderie that comes with the boating activities and breakneck speeds. What is it about adrenaline rushes and risky maneuvers that BOND my family members? I’m still working that one out. I’m kind of conflicted about it all. I don’t want to be selfish and only do things I like to do and miss out on quality family time, but speeding boats clench my stomach! One of these years I’ll find that elusive middle ground.

Sometimes I feel so different from the rest of my siblings—I don’t play basketball, I don’t like motorboat sports, I actually enjoy running long distances, and I read Jane Austen for fun. I’m ok with being different, but I do find it interesting that out of the 5 of us, I’m the ONLY one who didn’t get the adrenaline-action-extreme gene. Thank goodness I married someone like me (although I don’t think Jeff has read any Jane Austen, ha). And thank goodness for my dear Mom and Grama.

All of that being said, I do enjoy good pictures and glory stories of the stunts and feats over and on the water. Here are the star pictures of the week:

Em

Brad

Mel

Dad worked so long and hard getting up on that blasted wakeboard. And he did it!

Dani of the mountain

Jesse

Told ya they were intense.

The Flowers
Last summer, Mom, Mel, Jeff and I were going to meet at Mt. Rainier’s Paradise in August to see the famous wildflowers. But I got sick, so we never went. We were determined to take a day trip to Paradise on Thursday while everyone else was water-wedging it up. The drive took an hour longer than we expected. The views were glorious, but Jeff and I decided we had already seen better wildflowers on our other excursions this summer. So all in all we thought the trip was not quite worth the effort. But at least we got to enjoy fresh mountain air and giant sweeping vistas in exchange for our 2.5 hour drive. We “hiked” the hilly paved Alta Vista trail (less than 2 miles), and Jay and Rose turned out to be quite the reluctant companions. They kept moaning and sitting down at random along the hilly trail. In spite of it all, we still managed to enjoy ourselves and take some juicy pictures.

Rainier makes Adams look like a midget (and us too, for that matter).

Texture and light all mixed together. The effect was mesmerizing.

Jay was pretty uninterested.

There were plenty of wildflowers, but I think they were not all out yet or maybe I just read too many raves about them that made me expect more? Those twisting trails were calling to us, but the children weren’t quite up for the challenge.

This about sums up the kids’ moods.

I copied this one from the Mt. Rainier visitor’s website. I know it has probably been enhanced with Photoshop, but we didn’t see nearly this many flowers all mixed together in one place. Oh well! Maybe they’ll be this intense another time.

The House
On Friday, Grama and Grampa Gwynn (my Mom’s parents, who live near Sacramento) came for an over night visit. It was a treat to see them again because we don’t get to see them very often. Here we go around the lake house…

Sesame Street on the Kindle

We spent an afternoon doing some archery in the front yard. Everyone gave it a try!

We had some wild, haphazard techniques going on. It was a very amateur activity. I managed to hit the target once, even with my shaky-quaky form.

  

 

Brad patiently helped all the kids shoot a few arrows.

Pizza night! Dani favored us with two of her steakhouse pizzas (steak, caramelized onions, etc.), Mom and Em made the classic peppers-onions-sausage, and I made two BBQ chicken-cilantro zas and a Savoyarde (bacon potato rosemary crème). We also devoured 2 butterscotch peach pies and two tender Dani-special apple pies. Pizza pies plus fruit pies = PIE HEAVEN.

The AC on the main floor of the large lake house was not working, so this kitchen got smoking sweaty-hot each afternoon around cookin’ time.

We Browns love a chaotic, aromatic kitchen. And food in general.

Grama and Grampa Gwynn with all their great grandkids.

Blurry Brown sisters.

The Family
The traditional end of the week pictures, with all of the Browns minus Elder Kyle Brown, plus Grama and Grampa Gwynn. Right before picture time, Jay and Rose came in covered from head to toe in dirt—it was ground into their hair and all over their faces! So I had to do a quick scrub-down bath and clothes change while everyone waited outside for the picture. I felt all discombobulated when we finally rushed out for the picture. But the kids were clean!

 

 

 

 

FAMILY.

HAPPY.