Matthew days

After so many years of two or three little kids home all day, it's crazy to me that I only have one at home! Thanks to his late September birthday, Matthew won't start kindergarten until he's almost six, which also means there will be four years between Nathan starting school and Matthew starting school. Which is a long time for it to be just the two of us! I was looking over some preschool options yesterday and realized that he could go to preschool next year (actually, he could have gone this year) and my heart just seized up and I felt sick to my stomach, so it's a good thing we've got a lot of years together yet. ;-)

Although sometimes he definitely gets super bored with me!


When Abigail was this age I wanted to be out of the house every single day doing something. With Matthew, I go back and forth--sometimes I'm like oh my gosh we have to get out of here!!--but most days I really just want to chill at home with my little buddy. It seems like we pack enough other stuff in (grocery store, library storytime, taking older kids to the orthodontist or out to lunch or whatever) that we are pretty busy most days, but man do I cherish our house snuggled up on the couch with blankets and a giant stack of books.

Matthew is still super in love with his kitties--sadly we have misplaced one of his favorite "nasty kitties" and he won't touch the two nice new ones--argh! He calls them "maow maows" and his favorite one is completely smooshed flat and he's chewed the tail (and then I've trimmed it) to the point that when he's falling asleep he likes to stick his fingers in the tail and poke around in the stuffing inside. Good times. And his adoption of Abigail's baby blanket is still going strong!

Matty loves trains and cars and screwdrivers, so we spend a lot of time with those. And reading every book we can find about construction equipment! He's in that really great two-year-old stage where he seems to exist solely on milk, granola bars, and applesauce pouches (why why why!), and basically excels at destruction (last week he broke our microwave turntable plate, a regular plate, and the glass to a picture that I had literally just had framed that day). Oh man. Two-year-olds. This fun surprise is what I found one day last week after he'd had five quiet minutes alone. (He super loves to explore and is tall enough now that he can unlock exterior doors, get his own water from the 'fridge, and turn on all the lights in the basement. The combination of Neil's height and engineering ingenuity in our children is just a fun fun thing!)

Thankfully, he sleeps in a bit in the morning when I'm getting kids off to school, and I usually have a little time to catch up on student emails and grading (teaching 3 classes this semester) and he is still napping every afternoon, so I can use that time for running (training for another half-marathon right now--I think this will be my thirteenth?) or house projects. Last weekend I finished painting the kitchen doors that go out to the deck...making progress! Now I just have to finish the built-ins and the wall of eight (!!!) five-foot-high windows and this room will be done...

And then in the afternoons we hurry up and make snacks for the kids coming home. The boys get home first and we cuddle up for 45 minutes of reading on the couch and stuffing food into Luke so he isn't a rage demon (man oh man does that kid get fun when his blood sugar gets too low). Nathan and I are almost done with Little House in the Big Woods and Luke always curls up with us while Isaac is often off doing his own thing (literally--he's doing a bunch of afterschool clubs again. One thing that's pretty cool is that they had so many kids sign up for coding club that they split it into two semesters and each kid was able to sign up for one semester, but guess who was invited to take the only extra spot for the second semester because he's freaking awesome?).

Everyone coming home and digging through the cabinets asking me what's for snack is legit my most hated part of the day so I was really proud of myself for being on the ball yesterday with these muffins. And now it's 8:30 so it's time to go wake up Matthew (he's doing this fun thing lately where he likes to stay up at night to party once the other kids are in bed, so he sleeps in a bit in the mornings, and part of me KNOWS I should just wake him up at 7 but...).

Thinking

Yesterday I texted a friend last-minute to see if she could watch Matthew for half an hour (I was helping out in Luke's classroom) because my original plans had fallen through. She was super sweet about it and thanked me for giving her the chance to help.

When I got to her house, I realized that she had driven home from the school where she is PTO president and was in the middle of doing PTO stuff while her youngest was at preschool (at the same school). She played with Matthew for a bit, gave him some of her famous banana bars (which he is pretty obsessed with because she's the kind of person who is always making them and taking them to people who she thinks could use a little treat, so he's had them quite a bit!) then packed him up in her car and went back to the school to pick up her daughter. I mean--not at all convenient, right? But she was SO nice about it and told me how much she loves me and how glad she was that I called her.

Basically, I want to be more like this particular friend. She is amazing. So so selfless and awesome and I admire her so much. And then there is my friend who always texts me and says, "Hey, thinking of you--how is your day going? How is xyz random thing that you mentioned offhand to me but I remember because I'm a good friend and I'm following up?" And my friends who are freaking superwomen and do EVERYTHING and I don't know when they ever sleep, but man have they saved my bacon so many times in the last year! And my friend who know how much I love Middle Eastern food and brought me goodies from a Jerusalem supermarket because she was there over Christmas and thought of me. I mean...seriously.

Back to the original story--when I was chatting with this friend later and (and still feeling so bad for interrupting her day and assuring myself that I am never going to live up to her level of compassion and charity), she asked me if I could walk around her house with her and help her figure out some renovation things she'd been mulling over in her house. It was such a good reminder to me that we all have attributes and talents that we often take for granted in ourselves because we are so busy looking at other people and wishing we could be more like them. Anyway, this is super long-winded, and I am not trying to say that my renovation skills are anywhere on the same plane as her ever-selfless personality, but what I am trying to get to is that I've been kind of down in the dumps lately (thanks a lot being sick since before Thanksgiving, and for real thank you to the doctor who finally put me on steroids so that I am now not coughing nonstop for the first time in over a year!).

ANYWAY.

What I am getting to is that since this is my journal, I am going to take ten minutes today and write down a list of things I am good at doing because I spend a lot of time beating myself up over things and setting goals to be a better person and I never stop to think about all the things I do actually do well.

1) I am really good at staying on top of laundry. We go through a ton of clothes and towels and sheets, but everyone always has their practice uniforms or their special colored shirt or whatever--things never pile up and we never have a mountain of unwashed or unfolded laundry.

2) I am excellent at remembering who needs to go where when. Calendars and alarms definitely help out with this, but I've never forgotten to pick anyone up or take anyone somewhere that they need to be (knock on wood!).

3) I am good at keeping our house tidy. I've learned that I do not do well at all with any mess or clutter or anything (just makes me super anxious) and so I am very good at making sure our house stays at a level where we could be ready for company in ten minutes. (My children reading this are now asking why we have to clean for four hours before a party. Because, that's why.)

4) I am good at creating opportunities to host friends in our home. We hosted a big party every month in the last three months (which was exhausting but fun: a giant pie party in November where we invited like 40 couples, a cookie-decorating party in December where all the kids invited at least 3 friends, and a New Year's Eve party for I don't even know how many families).

5) I am good at staying in contact with my extended family and continuing to deepen relationships with my sisters.

6) I'm good at planning opportunities for my own family to jell together and create memories that bind us as a unit.

7) I'm good at exercising consistently--if I plan to do something, I'll do it.

8) I'm good at creating an environment in our home that promotes reading, literacy, and an appreciation of good literature.

9) I'm really good at baking bread.

10) I'm good at continually engaging myself in new books and ideas. I've slowed down a little on my reading (just so little time!) but I still average 3-4 books a week.

11) I'm good at planning and pushing through on home renovation projects (can't remember if I ever blogged about the living room redo, but that top picture shows the after once we removed the built-ins, rebuilt the walls, painted the fireplace, and built a new mantel. Here's the before.

12) I'm good at taking care of my houseplants. I really love those things a ridiculous amount but man that green makes me so so happy!!

13) I'm good at finding enriching opportunities for my children to really dig in to their talents and interests. 

That's all I can think of right now (mostly my mind is flooded with things that I need to work on and things I lack and all of that fun stuff).

What are you really good at doing? 

NYC 1993

This weekend I was going through files pulling together a gallery wall of the kids' art, and I found a journal thing from when I was there in 1993 and now I'm just going to type that up. ;-) All spelling and punctuation are as originally written (sorry you don't get my amazing handwriting but...). Things I remember as I'm typing and want to add are in italics (interesting how vivid some of these memories are 25 years later).

April 2, 1993
I am SO EXCITED!! We're in our hotel right now, eating dinner. We are in our room because Mom didn't want to go out to dinner. Dad just told me my waterbottle rolled under the car. Oh, well. I can get it out tomorrow. I'm sleeping on the floor because I want to.

Right now we are in Scranton, Pennsylvania. After driving 8 hours, I was glad to get out. I CANNOT WAIT!

April 2, 1993
Yesterday we got to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Pam's. We had a walk and a great Chinese dinner. We went through a tour of their lovely home. I still remember looking at my grandfather's old pipe collection that my uncle inherited, playing with their dogs, and that I really REALLY wanted to sleep on the papasan chair cushions. We had birds' nest soup for dinner and I was very interested by the whole idea of birds' nest soup. I think it took me awhile to work up the courage to try it and I don't remember really loving it, but I was very proud of myself for trying!

Today I went to church. I watched Fantasia before I went though.

Later I came home and had dinner. I watched a race for a little while and then I drew several pictures.

After that, we went to Sparkle Lake. We climbed on rocks. There were playground plastic horses fastened to the swingset. We swung on those for awhile. Then we went over to the lake. We threw bread for the swan swimming around. After several minutes of eating bread crumbs we threw for it, the swan came and ate out of Dad's and my hands! I really liked that! I have no actual memory of this event but when I went to New York a couple years ago to visit my uncle, my mom and I went over to Sparkle Lake and I had this very visceral memory of the lake and where everything was in relation to it as soon as I got out of the car. Not explaining this very well but while my brain didn't remember ever going to a place called Sparkle Lake, as soon as I was there I totally remembered that I'd been there before and knew just where to find all the good spots. 

When we got home, Dad, Aunt Pam, Mary Beth, Ruth, and I took Sugar (the dog) for a walk down the road. When we came back we watched "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" show. After that we had a snack. That's it so far. Another thing I remember about this walk is that afterwards we went into the garden and Uncle Kevin showed us his terra-cotta toad house. And at some point we saw a whole bunch of deer in the back yard.

April 6, 1993
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Park in New York State was 700 acres. It had a small forest, then a playground and basketball court, or a softball field, or a soccer field, then a forest, playground, etc.

We hiked around for a while, and then we headed back toward the picnic tables. On the way back to the picnic area I fell out of a tree I was trying to shinny up. After that we ate lunch, and then we went home.

When we got home everybody went to rest, except Ruth, Mary Beth, and I watched Robin Hood. When Elise got up we watched part of Home Alone. After dinner, because we got ready for bed super fast, and because we kept on asking, we were allowed to watch it for 10 minutes. But we ended up watching the entire rest of the show.

Today I went on a train to Grand Central Station (my mom bought a cheesecake at the station and I was really worried we were going to miss our train--it must have been on the way back to Westchester?). Then we walked to Uncle Kevin's office. We had some juice at the office. From there we had a wild taxi ride to the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.

At the Egyptian exhibit at the Met, they had the Temple of Dendur on display. They also had part of a pyramid made with stones from a real pyramid.

In one room of the exhibit, there were mummy cases and cloth that mummies had been wrapped in. That room was very dark and creepy.

I like the Arms and Armour and the paintings best.

At Central Park we saw the pond where Stuart Little sails his boat. We climbed on a statue of Hands Christian Anderson. I sat on his arm, his lap, the book he was holding which had the story of the Ugly Duckling engraved on it, and the Ugly Duckling standing by his feet.

After that we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral where my mom was nervous that Elise would start singing Happy Birthday bc of all the candles, down Fifth Avenue, and took the train back home.

IT WAS GREAT!!!!!

Oh yeah. On the train coming back, I split a soda with Ruth. I also had a cinnamon croissant with it.

In New York I had two franks, part of a huge pretzel, and some Hawaiian Punch.

April 8, 1993

Yesterday, we went to West Point United States Military Training Center. It was really neat. It showed a cadet's room, a day in the life of a cadet, etc. We watched a movie about several wars. It was very interesting.

Next, we went to the West Point museum. We looked at lots of bombs, cannons, and guns. Then we went to a kind of cadet park, where we had lunch.

As I looked out over the tremendous Hudson River from the walls of an old fortress, I felt awed. This river was huge! And the fort was great. I returned to my family and ate my lunch of a ham sandwich, chips, and root beer.

After lunch my sister Mary Beth and I swung each other around on the grass. It felt great laughing and running.

After awhile we walked (or rather the grownups walked and the kids ran) to a monument to men who died in the war.

We ran and played around the monument for awhile, but we didn't run on the monument, just walked on it.

After that we ran around and looked at cannons. I climbed on top of every single one in a row. I loved sitting on top of a huge World War II cannon and lying on it.

Later that night, after dinner, we had New York City cheesecake (ah! I knew I remembered this!) A while later after some asking, Mom said we could watch the Rescuers Down Under.

The girls and I enjoyed the movie, even Ruth, who had said it was dumb. Let me tell you the story.

Ruthie had said she wasn't going to watch it. But when Aunt Pam came downstairs into the basement where the VCR was to put the tape in, Ruth was with her. Ruth said she was only staying for the commercials for the other films. But commercials stretched to the first few words, the first few words stretched to the first few pictures, the first few pictures stretched to the entire movie. But we enjoyed the show.

When we came upstairs, guess what was waiting for us? Yum!! Italian Ice!! Yum!!

Great evening, huh?

Today I woke up and remembered that I was leaving New York. I sure didn't want to leave. But I got up and pushed my bed, which was a futon, back into the hall.

Later after breakfast, I started filling waterbottles and collecting 8 coloring books (2 for each girl), 4 books, a large box of crayons, and 11 necklaces. These are all greatly appreciated gifts from Uncle Kevin and Aunt Pam.

Soon Uncle Kevin left for his office. We left half an hour later, with lots of hugs.

We went to Liberty State Park. From there we saw Liberty Island, and on the island we saw Lady Liberty herself. I can't describe the sensation I felt as I actually saw this famous statue. We looked at the statue and took many pictures of it. It was lots of fun.

We bought several souvenirs of the statue (there's a really great drawing here of my shirt that I was OBSESSED with--it was black with the Statue of Liberty on it, but the really cool part was that it had glow-in-the-dark fireworks all around her head. I loved this shirt and wore it all the time until my finger got cut off and then it got covered with blood and thrown away in the hospital. Bummer). After lunch we fed the pigeons and gulls.

We went to Hershey, Pennsylvania. We walked into the Visitor's Center, and went on a tour ride inside. It showed how they made candy. It was really neat, because as they showed how they made it, they were actually making candy! It smelled GOOD!!

After the ride we each got two candy kisses. Then we went to the chocolate and souvenir area.

We each got a chocolate bar and a cookie. Then we ate that by a waterfall in the Hershey place. After that we got a drink and sometimes. (sometimes what? I want to know!)
We drove around for awhile, looking at the Hershey streetlights. If I remember correctly they're shaped like Kisses.
Later that night, we stopped for dinner, two hours from home and one hour from Grandpa and Grandma. We didn't really like the place where we were eating, Denny's. Mom called Grandma and Papa and asked if we could spend the night. They said yes, so we did.

THE END

And then there's a little postscript about the author...

Hi! My name is Rachael. I am 9 years old, and I go to Dillon Elementary. This story is TRUE! I went to New York over Easter break. It was fun!!

Anyway, things I like are READING (my nickname is Walking Talking Library), math, science, swimming, running, spending time with my family, and playing with my friends.

My favorite animals are cats and horses.

I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS BOOK!