Lifelines

I’ve only begun and I’m already tired of shopping. I didn’t go out yesterday to fight the crowds; I don’t care about the sales. Most of the stuff I want to buy for my kids for Christmas doesn’t go on sale anyway, it seems. Plus, I value my sanity more and I really can’t think of anything I like less than shopping.

Why I have such an aversion, I have no idea. But I think it boils down to something like this:

I don’t like unnecessary stuff accumulating in my life and I realized several years ago that I don’t need a lot of “things” around me. I’m as happy with two pairs of jeans as I am with twelve. I can do just fine with three pairs of shoes for winter, two coats, and one scarf.

I wouldn’t really categorize myself as a minimalist per say but I think I’ve had success at differentiating between needs and wants. Most of the time I stick hard and fast to those categories but, on occasion, I deviate. It’s not often though because I don’t like feeling wasteful and excessive spending makes me feel just that. I have a healthy dose of respect for our money and mainly, it’s because I’m not out there having to earn it. I’m home, doing what I want to do every single day, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here with my kids.

Plus, I’ve done it the other way. Spent my time shopping the days away and at the end of it all, I had very nice but very useless crap.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re still spendy on the things we choose to be spendy on. If we want it, we buy it, and we don’t agonize over it. But we’ve also probably spent quite a bit of time thinking about and researching online whatever it is we’ve purchased. We made a conscious decision a few years back to do two things: live beneath our means and use our extra money for travel. I think they’re the two best decisions we’ve made as a family.

So Christmas kills me. The complete and absolute excess of it all just does me in every damn year. I don’t WANT to buy bags and bags and bags of toys; my kids don’t need all that stuff! Currently, the boys play with about three things regularly: Legos, their computers, and their Nintendo DS’s. Two of those things are heavily moderated. So really, they build with Legos (for HOURS) and design forts with chairs and blankets, and do Boy Things down in the playroom. The Littles are happy with the stuff they have already and manage to keep busy just dumping out those toys and spreading them all over the house.

Judging from the amount of time I spent cleaning and sorting and organizing it all, I don’t think any of them needs a damn thing!

But it’s Christmas and so, I will make dreams come true. I will reluctantly shop for and lovingly wrap many presents for each of them.

Although, here’s a strange thing: no one really seems to want much. I asked the boys tonight at dinner what they wanted for Christmas. I usually have them make up a list and then circle their top five most desired gifts and then I buy those plus a few more.

A snippet of that conversation:

Me: “So what do you guys want the most?”

Chas: “A cell phone.” (Period.)

Rhyse: “A trampoline! With a net around it!” (They aren’t allowed on trampolines without nets so I was happy that he seemed to actually know this, although I have reminded him only about 576 times.)

Me: “But you won’t be able to use it. It’ll be far too cold outside.”

Rhyse: “Ok. An iPod!”

Me: “Don’t you already have Chas’ old one?”

Rhyse: “Yeah. But he won’t let me use it.”

Me: “Chas, let him use it. Rhyse, choose something else.”

Rhyse: “Well, I don’t know then….”

So basically, I’m on my own shopping for them and that suits me just fine. Unlike years past where there has been a “theme” of a popular toy (like Star Wars or Transformers), there isn’t one this year. If it’s anything at all, it’s those Lego kits which I am happy to buy for them because they have so much fun building them together.

My choices for what goes under our tree for our children are delibrate and parent-reviewed. I’ve said it before but I always check the user-ratings with just about any purchase I make these days. I care less what the manufacturer writes and more about what the mommy-at-home has to say about the product. If her two-year-old daughter broke it in three days, I know it’ll last seven minutes here. Valuable information.

I had a very pleasurable morning/afternoon out by myself today. Charlie stayed in with the crew while I headed over to a small toy store that I usually buy our presents for the kids from called The Learning Express. I dig it there; it’s usually quiet and I can think and move about freely. Plus, they carry the kinds of toys that I want to spend my money on: well-made and with high safety standards.

I’m happy to have gone out (very happy, actually) and I feel good about what I brought home for them. But…there’s far more to be sought and bought and wrapped and given.

I’m trying my hardest to fight the outrageousness of the gifting season and trying to wrangle Christmas into something that feels better and fits better to my family.

I don’t want to lose the meaning of the holiday, just the meaningless.

She’s like Hansel and Gretel dropping breadcrumbs in the woods, leaving me little reminders of her stay here and allowing me to follow her progress through my house. I would not be surprised to find her lipsticky kiss on my upstairs bathroom mirror, the one that only I use.

Because my sister is like any other little sister. She is at home in my personal space and she feels a certain freedom to unleash her curiosity while here. This used to drive me insane. I’d come home from college and she would be into all kinds of stuff, rummaging through drawers, and trying things on. My belongings have gone missing for YEARS under her direct supervision. She is much younger than I but, for as long as I can remember, she has always been around. Just a wisp of a shadow, one that I catch sight of when turning a corner. She’s there and watching but the years between us have provided a certain distance.

I nearly killed her when I moved home from Georgia and we stayed with my mom for awhile. I was in my mid-twenties, she in her teens. Suddenly, my possessions were far more enticing to her and my privacy far more interesting to violate. She took both without apology. And I really and truly almost killed her. It was a hard time for us…me, slipping into parent-mode with her, constantly around to tell her to knock it off, do better, don’t wear that, that I thought her choice in music/boys/friends was crap. (One of those conversations ended in the worst fight we’ve ever had, by the way.) And for her part? She was 15 or so. Do I really need to say more?

Happily, those days are far behind us. And over the last three or so years, we have become so much closer. I’ve really enjoyed watching my sister grow and change and now..flourish. She’s a woman in her own right and while she is still always paying close attention to the inner workings of what makes up her older sister…I’m paying attention to her, too. Tremendously funny and bright and brilliant, she is to me. We differ in so many ways but that’s what intrigues me about her. She’s artistic and creative where I can barely draw stick figures. She’s far more tom-boyish than her very girly sister. Not that she isn’t girly also but she will sit and watch sporting games by herself; I would rather have needles shoved under my fingernails. Recently, she went para-sailing and when I saw the photos, I just wanted her to get down. It looked fun…but I would never, ever do that. She is daring where I am practical, funky where I am definitely not, laid-back where I am control-freakish.

But we fit. And we both love to pick on Mom. That’s tremendous fun. ;)

One of my favorite things about my sister’s visits are these little mementos she leaves behind for me. Proving that she’s still happy to mess about with my crap and can not resist a white-board and marker set.

Example Number One:

She hijacks my computer. My screen-saver used to be a nice fall day; now, it’s a tribute to double-dating…with her!!

Example Number Two:

She finds my most important of note-jotting places and she leaves me messages. I can’t tell you how many times throughout the years that I have opened my desk calendar after she’s left and found her own “important dates” listed there. She usually makes a date with me, kind of like this. Although here, she seems to have taken up the entire last week of December. She’s getting all high-maintenancy on me!

Example Number Three:

Again, with the marker, she moves on to scribble sisterly love notes on yet another board. Her message is always the same: “Angi is hot.” God, I adore her. She knows this also, because she doodled that as well.

Brit, I love you and these small pieces you leave behind for me. Sometimes it takes me awhile to find your handiwork but eventually I do and it always, always makes me smile. You’re a wonderful little sister but so much more than that these days; you are my friend, too.

Kisses and hugs always,
Ang

Ok, here’s the deal at my house. If I’m honest? I don’t think we spent a tremendous amount of time really sitting around and being grateful. Surely, we were and are…deep down, we were and are. But mainly? Mainly, we just had fun.

My family is kind of goofy and we all like to have a good time. So dinner at my house is a little unconventional. It’s loud and laughy and we are not at all well-behaved. This time around, we spent the dinner hour taking stupid pictures of one another and zooming them up really close so we could all laugh at one another.

Really, we are weird.

But it’s so fun! We were happy to have my mom and Brit and Stew over and especially thrilled that Brit and Stew found it within themselves to eat a second Thanksgiving dinner. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem at all for Stew but seeing as he has seven fresh stitches in his bottom lip from an elbow to the face during his most recent basketball game, it was a smidge less pleasant than normal for him. He still fared well, though! Stew is not one to let a good meal pass him by. :)

As far as Thanksgivings go, this was a great one! And I can take absolutely no credit since Charlie walked into the kitchen at 8:00 this morning and left it 12 hours later. So not kidding. Luckily, my family does not rely on me to provide life-sustaining meals because I would have stopped right at removing the bird from the packaging. Shudder. Instead, I just try to stay out of his way and I must do a fairly good job because he ended up with a fantastic meal!

We ended our night with a new game that I picked up over at Amazon for Family Night and it was a hit! It’s called Qwirkle and it was terrific fun and super easy for Rhyse to play (and this is my measuring stick right now since Greer turned into a she-devil the last time she joined family night. We’ll bust out Candyland in a year or so, God help us all.)

Hope everyone had a lovely time with their own families! Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels from my family to yours.

And here’s our goofy selves having a grand old time….

You wouldn’t think that right now would be a great time to visit the zoo and you would have had reason to think that, what with the high temperatures cracking a sizzling 32 degrees or so. This is what I was thinking, too, last Wednesday. And it WAS very cold out. But it was also really nice to have the zoo to ourselves and we did–almost completely!

The boys had a zoo class and while they were busy, the Littles and I headed over to the Reptile building because a) it was warm inside and b) I thought they’d like to spend some time having their own private What-It’s-Like-To-Be-A-Turtle show.

You know what, too? It was one of the best afternoons we’d had in awhile! We had the building to ourselves and we spent most of the hour and a half sitting in front of the little turtle pond, just watching them swim and play. Creux was adorable, not understanding that the glass prevented him from picking up the rocks on the bottom of the exhibit or touching the turtles as they slide by.

My favorite part? It was super cozy and quiet in there as we sat on the floor together in front of the tank and had a little snack picnic. It was relaxing and we all enjoyed just hanging out in there together.

I had really kind of dreaded this zoo trip because it was freezing and I just knew we’d be bored, having to wait so long for the boys.

But, it was a nice surprise and turned out to be a day that I’ll remember for a little while.

Let me preface this entry by saying how happy I am to have my Christmas holiday returned to me! I recently made a deal with the flu bug, he flipped the play book on me, and now I’m back in the driver’s seat. Or I will be when I finally get up off the floor.

The past two days have been rough for me, to say the least. And I feel like the past month has been one illness after another, after another, and like I always knew it would in the end, it finally caught up with me.

It’s been hard but not as bad as it could have been. With four kids in the house, it could be horrific trying to get some rest. Because the sleep that I’ve needed hasn’t been asking for kindly; my body has demanded it and really has not been too concerned with arrangements for childcare.

Chas really stepped up to the plate for me, yesterday and today, in ways far bigger than I can summon the words for here. Honestly, I have no idea what transpired in my house this morning until around 10:30 when I woke up. He took care of the Littles sufficently enough that I was not bothered, not even for the constant bickering that is always simmering between Rhyse and Greer.

For his part, Charlie has done absolutely everything else. He came home yesterday and let me sleep for about six hours or so which hasn’t happened since 1996, a year before I had Chas. And tonight, I felt almost guilty as I slept through dinner preparations (slept on the hallway floor because that’s what happened to look good at the moment), barely attended dinner with my family, slept again through dinner clean-up, the over-seeing of four bathtimes, two bedtimes, and a massive pre-Thanksgiving grocery run.

I’m ready to return to my life. I can’t stand being sick and sleepy and unproductive.

I am so going to be jolly and bright for Santa’s arrival. SO jolly and bright, along with my entire family.

And that’s my final answer.

Normally, I agonize over paint colors. AGONIZE. And I drive Charlie crazy in the process, making him look at 32 different paint swatches all varying by just a smidge of color. I can see it, he can not. Nor does he care. He just wants to know which one to buy. It’s infuriating!

But this bathroom was actually really easy for me. I walked into Home Depot, I walked out with about seven samples. I chose one this morning and only asked him six times if he liked the color. Those are record setting numbers all the way around!

I knew I wanted a finish on the paint called “candlelight” so once I narrowed it down to the right color, (gold), I just went with it.

And oddly? I think I found the stupid color I’d been looking for all along–for the rest of my house! The yellow/brown/gold color in here has been a nightmare for Charlie. Only because I insist that I love a small square of it and then he paints the room and I’m like…”Whoops! That’s waaaaay too yellow. Hate that. Will you paint it again?” Oh, it has not gone well, the yellow/brown/gold.

Anyway, I really do think I’ve found my color, the color that I now want throughout the house. :)

Oh, Charlie, you know you want to do it–after all, it’s winter. What else are you going to do??

So happy to have this bathroom done, now we just need some pictures hung. And a little rug. Hmmm. Perhaps a new trashcan.

This crap, it really is never-ending…

It’s 9:43pm and my foyer and bathroom are doing some kind of freaky Morphing-Into-One:

The downstairs bathroom is being painted and my God, what the hell is all that wall dust about?

Repeating…am so not going to complain, am so not going to complain…

She looks delicious, really!

My boys bring home all kinds of great artwork from their co-ops and classes. I can not and will not teach art so I am happy to hire out for this part of our curriculum.

We’ve been using Juli Hess for years and years…since Chas was a kindy boy! We met her when she was doing classes in Uptown Westerville and soon starting taking just about any workshop she offered–anywhere. We became friends and we helped wiggle her into our homeschooling favorite places as she now teaches art at both of our co-ops.

She does a fantastic job with the kids and both of my boys will soon be taking lessons from her at her home studio during the long, boring winter while we are on break from our regularly scheduled classes.

The other day, Rhyse climbed into my car after a day at WAHA and he held in his hand a painted mummy figure. I didn’t look really closely at it right then but later when we got home, I gave it a more thorough inspection and started cracking up. Then I checked my friend Carla’s private blog and I started just rolling with laughter. Her boys made the most gorgeously decorated mummies, complete with sparkly glued-on gems.

Rhyse’s mummy? Well, he painted his and emphasized a particular female attribute. See if you can figure out what I mean:

And if not, here’s a closer look:

Yep, his mummy has boobies! :) She kind of reminds me of a stripper mummy with gold stick-on tassels!

Rhyse kept telling me that Miss Juli wanted to speak with me and I finally caught up with her in the parking lot of the church on Showcase night.

She asked me how I liked the mummy and we both just lost it! She said that in all of her classes, Rhyse was the ONLY kid who painted his lady so especially feminine.

Am so very proud.

Thursday was our last day of co-op for fall which is really kind of hard to believe! And while I love it, I’m not complaining. It was a tough semester for me, but my kids had a ball, as usual.

I know I’ve said it before but it deserves another mention here. This co-op is strictly parent-run and is also strictly volunteer staffed. If parents did not step up to offer their services for teaching these classes, there would be no classes. If we couldn’t get volunteers in the hallways and nurseries and classrooms, we would not be able to hold classes. And if my very good friends and co-board members didn’t work their asses off from time to time, none of it would happen!

Truth be told, I didn’t know how much work went into this co-op until I came on to help serve it. At first, I was just another parent there to do my mandatory volunteer hour and was happy to leave as soon as I was finished. Now…I know first-hand just what it takes to operate a successful “school” for the kids in our little homeschooling community. There are six of us that make up the Board, each with a different job and, somehow, we manage to pull it altogether. I feel truly lucky to have been brought on to help with such a special part of my kids’ educational journey and to be surrounded with so many like-minded families. I’m happy to help and am just grateful to have such wonderful friends who give so much of their own time and energy for the greater good…which here happens to be the many little boys and girls who show up on Thursdays excited to learn and to be among their peers.

Laura, Margot, Jenny, Holly, and Cathy–as always, it’s been a pleasure. You guys make co-op so fun for me personally and I will miss seeing you all weekly! Am hoping to join you for lunch in the spring. ;) Thanks for all that you do.

Our co-op always ends with a Showcase Night for our families. It’s just a chance for parents and grandparents to come and see what these kids have been working so hard on for the ten weeks that we are in session. It’s also a chance for some of our kids to perform any particular talents that they possess so we’re always treated with lots of little piano players and a few singers and dancers mixed in here and there!

The night went off nicely from start to finish and it seemed like everyone happily enjoyed our last little get-together of the semester!

Before Showcase started, Rhyse sat with Colin while he practiced his song on the piano:

Rhyse, Colin and Ethan:

Cyclone Creux Calloway wipes out:

I took a two photos of the room because it looked so great with all the artwork up on the walls:

Greer taking a swing at Ethan. The hardest part of Showcase night is keeping all those kids from running and wrestling in the big open room!

Case in point–here’s Greer chasing Erin. These girls have done this at every Showcase that I can remember and I have the pictures going waaaay back to prove it. These two just run and run, giggling the whole way:

Out of all that gorgeous art-work covering the walls, this is the ONE thing my boys contributed:

Creux always goes for the pretty girls. Here he’s attempting to dance? wrestle? Paige:

No matter where we are, there’s always time for a little of this:

Sweet little music-makers:

I didn’t authorize it but Creux snagged a cookie anyway:

He didn’t let even a bit go to waste:

Greer’s Preschool Play class performed for the families. The theme was “Around the World” and they visited a different country every week. Here, each child is representing a country and just guess who is the Queen of England?

“You can not make me talk, smile, or move.”

I love this photo! This is Rhyse, all eyes on the stage, riveted and smiling:

And this is who he is proudly watching…his best friend, Colin, who was brave enough to get up there and play a song for the crowd:

Rhyse, having found the ONE piece of fruit in the room:

I found him in the corner, quietly making the peace sign out of push-pins:

Greer and the Miller twins…the piano was a hit!

Post-Showcase, post-clean-up…the kids use the space as their own private track:

Greer, just being Greer: