Good Things

A few Good Things from the past couple of weeks:

Father's Day with your father (or step-father!)

Fresh-picked blueberries (and even better if the blueberry patch is full of friends as well as blueberries!)

VBS

Bach and Beethoven

Shoulder-high corn and squash gone crazy

Fair Ribbons, Fair Food, and Fair Rides on a perfect summer night

Kid theater productions

The Downtown Farmer's Market

Drive-in movies

Good Grillin' by Daddy D

Summer afternoons out on the lake

We've had a really fun couple of weeks! On Father's Day, (here are the kids with Daddy D on Father's Day, and even Copper-the-Dog smiled for the picture!), John bought a tube for the kids and we took a picnic to the lake for a couple of lazy afternoons on the boat. And a warning for all tubers: when John drives the boat, his main goal is to send you OFF the tube and into the water, which is a total thrill to all the boys in the family (the girl, notsomuch) so hang on tight!

We ended the week with a trip to see Indiana Jones at the Drive-in, but either I was really tired or it was really boring because I fell asleep three times in my camp chair, and every time I woke up, they were still chasing... still chasing... still chasing... but the cheeseburgers were wonderful!

This past week was Mom's Taxi Week. I drove back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and forth to VBS for the two little boys and John Mark, who always signs up to work games with the little kids, and then back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and forth downtown for Becca and Philip, who had auditioned for a Children's Theater Production of Sleeping Beauty. Becca was a fairy and Philip was a cool court musician, and in one week these kids put together a pretty impressive little musical. They were doubly excited to get to do their production at the big symphony hall! Here are the court musicians:

And the fairies (who had already flipped their costumes from Medieval to Fifties Dolls):

And in the middle of all that, I've blueberry-pickin'; we've all been to the fair, where Nathanael was finally old enough to ride the BIG rides for the first time; John, John-Mark and Daddy D have been fishin' fools; and we've enjoyed the firstfruits (or first-squashes, first-radishes, first-peppers and first-lettuces) from the garden. Did I mention that I love June?

And We're Back...

But I bet you already knew that. We had a fun time in D.C, but it was HOT, HOT, HOT. Let me tell you, it was thrilling to watch all the news about the northeastern heatwave and then be able to walk right out the door and experience it for ourselves. But otherwise, it was a great trip. I lived in Northern Virginia for two years in high school and had seen most of this stuff before, but John had never been to Washington. And this is what we did:

Wednesday

Flew out of Nashville. We stopped for lunch at Olive Garden on the way there, but John made a miscalculation on time. He dropped me off so I could get our luggage checked while he parked and he almost missed the flight, making an exciting commencement to the trip. We arrived in Baltimore because Southwest does not fly from Nashville to D.C, and took the MARC train to Union Station in D.C, where we caught the metro to our hotel stop.... where it was pouring rain. More excitement! We got to drag our luggage over a block full of puddles and rain, but finally we made it to the hotel and I was wet and my shoes were wet. Sigh. Later, we walked to dinner at the Capitol City Brewery where John sampled the brew and I had a fab crab cake sandwich and we planned the next day.

Thursday

OK, might as well hit the big stuff first. The weather channel predicted rain, but it was sunny and actually kind of nice outside. We took the metro to the mall and went to the Smithsonian castle, which is a kind of information center. It also has an exhibit featuring a little of everything from all the different Smithsonian museums, and the architecture is really, really cool on the inside. To my great dismay, the American History museum was closed for renovations and it was at the top of my list! We decided to go to the Natural History museum, with a stop by the Hirschhorn Gallery, which is all contemporary and modern art. I have no patience for modern art and weird sculpture, but John has a weird fascination with it, so we walked through the sculpture garden and around one level of the gallery. Then, off to Natural History. In the lobby, you are greeted by one of the statues from Easter Island:

They have bunches of stuffed birds and animal and dinosaur skeletons and all the other things you would hope for in a Natural History museum, but my favorite gallery is Gems and Minerals. They have breathtakingly beautiful pieces of jewelry displayed, and amazing displays of gems and minerals. Shiny things... I love shiny things! Pictures don't even do it justice.

We ate lunch at the Old Post Office, which has a cool food court inside, and you can go up in the tower for great views of the city: I was glad John was content with this, because I did not want to stand in line to go up into the Washington Monument. We ate and we viewed, and then we went back to the hotel for a nap, because napping is an essential part of every great vacation, right?

We left again at dusk, and the weather was fabulous. John decided that he did not want to walk up and down the mall twice, so he gets this brilliant idea that we should take the metro to Arlington Cemetery and walk over to the Lincoln Monument which is a REALLY long walk and definitely something I had never done before and quite frankly don't care to do again. But the Lincoln Monument is gorgeous at night and after we visited Mr. Lincoln, we visited the Vietnam Memorial and then walked along the Reflecting Pool to the WWII Memorial, which I had never seen before. It was awesome in the dark, but I'd like to see it in the day so I can read all the plaques and inscriptions. Then, we hiked up the hill to the Washington Monument. It was pretty late by now, so no one was there except a security guard on his bike. We laid on one of the marble benches at the base and stared straight up at the brightly lit monument which seemed to soar up against the night sky, with the American flags all snapping in the breeze around us. Everyone should see the Washington Monument like that.

And then we had to trudge to a metro station and we were very tired and our feet hurt. Since it was almost 11 at night, our dining options were fairly limited, but someone finally directed us to the Old Ebbit Grill, which "was a favorite of Presidents Grant, Cleveland, Harding and Theodore Roosevelt and is still a popular meeting spot for political insiders, journalists, celebrities and theater-goers." There were lots of guys in suits and ties and a bunch of people watching the Lakers and the Celtics in the bar, but if we saw a celebrity, we didn't know it. We both had Shrimp Nicoise and it was very good but it was midnight, and we had to hike back several blocks to our hotel, thereby dashing John's earlier plan of getting up at the crack of dawn. Darn!

Friday

The heat wave arrived on this day. We got up late, ate breakfast late, and then went to one of my favorite places, the National Gallery of Art. In high school, my BFF Christy and I used to take the bus into D.C. and we always went here. The building itself is awe-inspiring, but nothing matches seeing real art in person. I am amazed that our Gallery has some of the artwork that it does. After John dragged me out of the gift shop (I could spend hours in this gift shop) we saw an exhibition I had never seen before. It was called "Medieval to Modern" and we walked through galleries of Rodin and Degas sculptures and then I happened upon this:

which is THE picture in all the history books when you study ancient Rome. It's called "The She-Wolf Suckling Romulus and Remus" and is from the late 15th - early 16th century... ok, so maybe you had to be there. John was amazed that all this incredible art- the stuff you see in books all the time even if you aren't an art buff- was just hanging there and you could walk right up and touch it if you were so inclined (but of course, you aren't supposed to do that and a security guard will fuss at you and follow you around from then on out, as Christy and I once discovered.) We had to fly through the galleries filled with incredible Vermeers, Monets, Van Goghs, Rembrandts, Raphaels and even a Da Vinci because we had a dinner date that evening with Steve and Sally, Christy's mom and dad, who took me in for the last 6 months of my senior year of high school after my family moved back to Alabama. We haven't seen each other since my wedding 17 years ago and John had never really got to meet them before, so I was really looking forward to this visit.

They picked us up at the Metro station in Fairfax and we went back to their house to visit for a while before they took us to dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant (which sounds really good right now, BTW). It was so great to see them again, and I guess you can tell really good friends because you just pick up right where you left off and it doesn't feel like a long time at all.

Saturday

On Saturday, we got a late start too, in spite of good intentions. This time, I dragged John to the National Cathedral, which I had never visited, but that is worthy of its own post. It's off the beaten path and so doesn't get the attention that other places get, but it was definitely worth the effort to visit. We stopped and ate lunch at a Korean-Japanese restaurant and my order came with sushi which is HIGHLY OVERRATED. (There, I've said it.) And then we went to Arlington National Cemetery (did I mention it was hot?) and watched the Changing of the Guard and mercifully, took the tram tour to the Kennedy grave sites and through the rest of the cemetery. I would love to go back some time and spend an entire day there- there's so much to see, and I didn't even get to see the Iwo Jima Memorial, but it was too hot for words and all we wanted was to get back to the hotel where we could peel off our sweat-drenched clothes and lay like dead fish in front of the air conditioner. Isn't that a mental picture you really needed?

But the day ended well. We recovered in time to get gussied up for dinner at the Oceanaire, which is a restaurant done up like a 1930's ocean liner. It was pricey but ranks as some of the best seafood we've had on our vacation travels, and we ended with Baked Alaska which we were almost too stuffed to enjoy but who can resist ice cream on fire? Not I.

Sunday

Got out the door late, late, late and it was totally John's fault. The plan was to visit Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, but we missed the boat (literally) because we slept in and then the Metro lines were running slow due to maintenance. It was not meant to be. Instead, we went to Union Station and hopped one of the big red double decker tour buses, which took us to all the places on John's must see list:

And then the day rapidly fell apart. We were in some fancy neighborhood among the embassies or some such places when we realized it was time to make our seat reservations for Southwest. If you've ever flown Southwest, you know what I'm talking about. It's a real showdown. But here we are, getting sunburned on the top of a big red bus and we have no idea where we are and we couldn't get hold of my mother who had said she would make the reservations for us and John's mother was at work, so we got OFF the bus so John can walk his non-techy dad through the steps to get our seats for Southwest. While we're both standing on the sidewalk in sweltering heat and we have no idea where we are, John pokes me in the leg and teases, "You're not wearing any underwear!" (Now, aren't you glad you stayed with this post just to read that line?) This was so not the time for those kind of shenanigans and I was annoyed, so I scowled at him and hissed "I AM SO!" And after he coached his dad through the seating arrangements, he looked at me and said, "You know I love you." Yes, I know you love me. "But you have a huge rip in the back of your pants."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently, in my rush to get off the bus, I caught my (favorite) pair of pants on something and I had a gash in them that started midway up my butt almost down to my knee. I was mortified. And then he left! He left me standing there with a huge gash in my pants!! "We have to go find the bus stop!" he announced and he took off, leaving me to fend for myself and cover the gaping hole as best as I could with my purse. Believe me, you did not want to be there at that time and I will spare you the rest of the scene, but we did eventually get back on the bus and we made it back to Arlington, where we took the Metro back to our hotel. If he really and truly loved me, he would have hailed a taxi, but apparently he doesn't, so he just walked really close to me all the way back to the hotel. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

We somehow recovered enough to eat at the Full Kee (an excitingly authentic Chinese restaurant) in Chinatown, and we would have gone to a movie if the times had worked out but they didn't, so instead we laid in bed in our air-conditioned room and I read "The Time Traveler's Wife" and he watched the Lakers and the Celtics. I believe we stayed one day too long.

And on Monday we went home and it was very uneventful and we were very happy to be back.

June!

I love June. Tonight was the first night of VBS at the church at the end of our street, and as I walked over to get the 3 little boys at 9PM, the sky was still just barely light. Copper the Dog had apparently noticed large numbers of children at play during the evening and joined the kickball team during Game Time. When I arrived, she was still sitting outside the church doors waiting for them to finish, to the boys' great delight. John has taught her to "sit" and "shake" and she's killed two moles, so I believe she's managed to make some points with The Dad.

In other summer news:

• We've been to a perfect night at the drive-in theater,
• enjoyed a mulberry pie with the 4 cups of berries the kids picked off our trees and managed to not eat,
• Made freezer jam, pie and lots of shortcake topping with the 6 gallons of strawberries the kids picked in our neighbor's strawberry patches,
• I've been to my very first quilting class and, after I made it over the learning curve, actually liked it,
• My mom and I have been working on our various photo projects and are making plans for the family photo cookbook project,
• John Mark caught a 3 1/2 lb large-mouth Bass on one of his and Daddy D's fishing adventures,
• John made the little car run again (gas for the big vans was killing us- a couple of weeks ago, it was $500 in one week!)
• Turnip greens are almost ready in the garden and the corn is coming up,
• John opened the pool in honor of the first day of June but does not encourage swimming yet, as the water is freezing,
• All kids finished their math for the year (!!!!)
• and I made a good dent in my co-op lessons for next fall

This week, John and I leave on our trip to Washington and the two teens head off to camp in South Carolina while the little boys stay with GranMartha and Daddy D. I love June!

Brown Paper Packages...

So the UPS man arrived with my box from Rainbow Resource last night. I love the UPS man and I love Rainbow Resource, so it's too bad I was stressed out over Clair de lune, and I'll just say right now that I don't care if I never hear Clair de lune again in my life. But as I was saying, new homeschool books! Fresh, shiny books that beg to be filled with scholarly observations, expanded vocabulary and pristine handwriting. Ha. Anyway, my Rainbow box also included a new Student Assignment Notebook.

Child #4, Benjamin, came up to me a couple of months ago and explained, "Mom, I need a book to write my homework in so I can see what I have to do each day." My first thought was, "Whose child are you, anyway?" This is the child who is diligent about his school work, who does his math every day without being told, and who sheds tears over the (rare) forgotten assignment. John and I contemplated this phenomenon one night, and we wondered if perhaps he was switched at birth and we just never caught on. Perhaps there is some quiet, studious family out there who spends their evenings reading The Great Books and whose dinner time conversation involves thoughtful debate over something other than who can burp the loudest. Maybe this family is wondering where they got this one rogue child who bowls over laughing every time he hears the word "Uranus." Anyway, I am thankful for sweet, studious Ben who wants to write out all his assignments at the beginning of the week. It was such a good idea that now I make the other brothers do the same thing, but they are not at all pleased about this innovation.

And speaking of homeschool curriculum, our co-op moms had a very fun excursion to Nashville to the curriculum fair last weekend. The fair wasn't as big as previous years, so next year we might investigate some other cities. We stayed at the Residence Inn, ate yummy food at the Macaroni Grill, talked late into the night on Friday night, slept late on Saturday morning (!), and then headed off to Opry Mills. We came dragging home again Saturday evening, and I had the whole, entire house to myself for twelve whole hours because John had taken the boys camping for the weekend and Becca was with my mom. The silence, it was golden.

Today, the guys are taking Daddy D's boat out to the slip, so hopefully some barbequing, boating, fishing and a good book or two are in store for the long holiday weekend. Life is good.

Recital Day and the Pit of Dread

May 22. Recital Day is finally here. I woke up yesterday feeling the Pit of Dread in my middle parts, along with the accompanying stomach problems. Last summer, I began working on Debussy's Clair de lune, and even after my lessons stopped when school started again, I kept working on it. Although I had lessons off and on (more off than on) during my childhood and college years, I had never tackled a piece of this caliber. Hands-down, it's the hardest thing I've ever played, and Kim, our piano teacher, never tried to dissuade me from attempting it, though I can only imagine what she must have been thinking. I managed to work up the entire piece over the winter, and even though my accuracy with the left-hand runs isn't quite at 100%, I know it is recital-ready. Problem is, over the past 15 years or so, I've developed a debilitating case of stage fright.

It's perplexing because I performed for so many years throughout high school and college without blinking an eye. There were times I should have died of embarrassment, but I just grinned and kept on going. But now, 17 years later, sometimes I can't even make it through my piano lessons without my hands shaking badly enough to make playing impossible. Add a few new faces to the audience, and my legs start shaking too. Very, very frustrating!

After I played Clair de lune for Kim again this spring, she began talking about me playing it at the spring recital. I told her I just didn't know if I'd be able to do it. But the more I thought about it, the more I became determined that this would not be one more time in my life when I sit on the sidelines, watching everyone else and wishing I could do it too. And so I'm doing it. Who knows what the audience will be thinking: We didn't come to see a MOM play... who is this crazy woman? It's some comfort that my buddy Marcia will also be playing, even though she's doing a duet, because otherwise I might not have the courage to make a fool of myself. Misery and fools love company.

In a sick twist of scheduling, I found out that the entire family's dentist appointments, which are scheduled many months in advance, are this afternoon. The dentist is not something to be rescheduled when you have as many teeth as we have in our family. I discovered that my hair color appointment- also scheduled months in advance- was also this morning. I called my hairstylist and explained that I could not handle the stress of new hair, the dentist and a recital all on the same day, but she was not very sympathetic. She couldn't work me in again until after John and I get back from our vacation in June. Oh, the sacrifices. So... Tonight. 6:30. Me and Clair de lune. Wish me luck!

Spring

I've had to be careful naming my posts because it seems that there are an awful lot of p0*n stars named "Sandy." So I've had to delete post titles with names like "sweet" and "summer," and there may even be others that I haven't caught yet. Sigh. I'm taking a chance with "Spring" because I'm totally not clever and can't think of anything better. If I could, I'd be winning big bucks in Pioneer Woman's photo-captioning contests, and her prizes are worth taxing the brain cells! But, here we are: no clever captions, but some wonderful signs of spring:

Two nests of brand new baby birds in the ferns hanging on our front porch.

They are House Finches and the adult males have pretty red heads and breasts:

The first peony of the season:

John's hard work in training the Clematis on the mailbox has finally paid off. The mailbox area is a work in progress. I'm going to have to move the lilies or daffodils or whatever is going on at the bottom because they can never decide whether they want to bloom, and although those pink flowering things are perennial and impossible to kill, they are only pretty like this for about two months out of the year. The rest of the time it looks like scrub grass. But you know, there's a lot to be said for perennial and impossible to kill! Our street address sign finally fell off, even though this is a new-ish mailbox, but I suppose it was for the best. It was a prime bird-pooping perch, and it frustrated the daylights out of John to have bird poop all over his pretty new mailbox. It's a lot cleaner now, and I'm sure our mail lady is thanking us.

Mother's Day '08

I had such a fabulous Mother's Day! It actually started on Saturday when John took me and the little boys out to breakfast at IHOP and then shopping... at the jewelry stores! I am really not much into jewelry because I am too casual to wear the stuff that really catches my eye. But John decided a while back that he was going to get me a mother's ring with each of our children's birthstones. At the fifth store, we finally found and ordered the perfect ring. John Mark and Nathanael cost the most money because their birthdays are in April, which means diamonds! But I didn't choose the ring with the big settings- my ring is simple and pretty. John almost never purchases me jewelry, so when he does, it's a really special thing.

The poor little boys were bored out of their minds during our day-long trek however, but they endured it with only minor complaints. On Sunday, we had a wonderful church service which proved that our guys are basically big softies under those rough-and-tough exteriors. Each man who talked about his wife or mom had a hard time holding it together. If I didn't love our preacher so much, I would tease him about almost ruining my day with his Proverbs 31 sermon, otherwise known as The Guilt Chapter. After church, we ate at my favorite buffet downtown, and we all went back home where GranMartha and I opened gifts. GranMartha had taken the kids to the mall earlier in the week to shop for me, and they purchased a denim vest and a tee shirt at my favorite clothing store, as well as an array of gifts from Bath & Body Works. They did such a good job! Becca, Nathanael, Ben and Philip made me cards, and Philip added sweet poetry. I teased my oh-so-rational engineer husband, "This is what a love note sounds like!" GranMartha asked John Mark if he was going to make me a card too and he huffed, "Don't you think I'm old enough to purchase a card now??" So he did. Enjoy those sweet hand-made cards while you can! In his card, he wished me a "Happy 15th Mother's Day." Tempus fugit. I read all my cards out loud to the kids, and finally I came to John's card. After I read it, Ben exclaimed, "We shopped all day for THAT???" He thought that's all we had purchased the day before, and it was totally not worth it! Too funny.

John sent me and my mom out shopping while the rest of the family cooked and cleaned and mowed for CARE group. That was a huge gift, but I think it nearly overwhelmed John because he seemed slightly panicked by the time we returned. During Bible study that night, the guys redeemed the Proverbs 31 Guilt Lesson by sharing things they love about their wives as mothers. It was so sweet, and afterward, my mom joked, "I am so glad this day is over- no more crying men!" They love us. I am blessed.

Two Things I've Learned This Week

1. Do not hold a tube of toothpaste when engaged in a heated "discussion" with your spouse.

2. If a brand new bottle of Tide should fall off the washer and empty onto your laundry room floor, it's gonna take a really, really long time to clean it up.

Just in case you ever wondered.

Whew!

I am so happy May is here! Co-op is over, the children's chorus concert is over (it was fabuloso!) and testing is over, so we are free to enjoy the beautiful weather. We'll be doing math and other miscellaneous things through the end of May, but no one is complaining about the lighter schedule- in fact, the kids seem to prefer having the structure of at least a *little* schoolwork.

It took me two full days to recover from post co-op stress last week, and I got nothing of value accomplished. But on Saturday, my mom and I got up early, loaded up the unwilling kids who had to be at choir practice at 9:30, and hit two neighborhood yard sales. After a full morning of yard-saling (and a stop at Kohl's), she found a few things, but I was pretty discouraged until I found this:

an almost-new tiller for John! Our very generous friends have graciously let us borrow their tiller for the past three years, but now John can till at will, and he is most pleased. His pleasure over the new tiller mitigated his displeasure over the call he received when my van lost power steering that afternoon in the K-Mart parking lot, which he had to come and repair (fortunately, it was a fast and inexpensive fix). After we got back home, my mom and I decided to stop back by a moving sale we had visited earlier. An interior designer was moving into a new home and selling the furniture she wouldn't be needing any longer, so here is my find of the day: a new sofa! It was still sitting in her garage, and she was ready to drop the price.

The new TV (The Precious) began all this, because it required a new entertainment cabinet which required a new sofa which required new lamps which require new drapes which require new recliners. I'm up to the drapes now. Of course, John's list goes something like this: the new TV which required the new PS3 which required the new controllers which required the new games and Blu-ray movies which require the new surround sound speakers. He's up to the speakers, but he has agreed to wait until after the recliners, whenever that may be (but thank-you-very-much, President Bush, for trying). Anyway, I love my new-used sofa, even though my living room is beginning to look like Kirkland's, which I find a little disturbing because, while Kirkland's has very pretty things, it really isn't me. But since the real me would make an interior designer throw up her hands in despair, I guess I'll just enjoy my pretty new things and keep shopping for drapes.

SO, the yard sales did the trick: I am refreshed and renewed and have undertaken the many projects which have been piling up around here: redistributing school books to their proper off-season shelving, cleaning bathrooms long neglected, washing mountains of laundry, and shopping for next year's curricula (I found John Mark's math on ebay- glory, glory!)

In other news, Daddy D (my stepdad) has planted the garden, John grilled spare ribs tonight (mmmm!), Copper the Dog is officially ours because she has been to the vet and I have spent money on her, and tomorrow, JM and Becca are going to Tennessee with GranMartha and Daddy D to see Daddy D's family for Mother's Day. It's been a lot of fun having my parents around. It's going to be a good summer.

We Have Run the Race

Co-op is over for the year, and there was much rejoicing! Final exams were yesterday and we celebrated last night with a Pizza Party instead of the usual big co-op production. I think we might be down to one large production a year now, unless someone with a penchant for productions moves in, because by the time April rolls around, I am worn out! But we have definitely run the race this year and finished well.

In spite of all the frustrations involved in co-operative teaching, it is very satisfying to look at a school year and see such tremendous progress with each child. It's good to step back and look at the big picture again because it's so easy to get caught up in the week-to-week chaos and conflict. But the big picture looks really good and overall, I am very pleased with the results of this school year. We still have another month of school, including standardized testing this coming week. This will be the first year in the history of our homeschool that all five children will have met their math goals for the year- no "math guilt" this summer! We have worked hard, and so help me, it better show on their standardized scores! :-)

We are spending the day in "recovery", and the kids are having piano lessons upstairs as I type. I am sorting through papers and notebooks to decide what to toss and what to keep for their yearly portfolios, and I hope to get all the textbooks put up on their proper shelves again. Paper piles seem to be a way of life around here, but at least this will make room for whatever new ones the summer brings. I also have to alter the length of the Philip's tuxedo pants for chorus pictures tonight- ugh- but this is the last week of rehearsals for that too. Just a little while longer- summer's almost here!

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In other news, the six-year-old is no longer six; he is now a proud seven-year-old! We had a cookout at GranMartha's new place to celebrate, and then we brought cupcakes to co-op to share with his buddies. My baby is getting big.