Free Time

So this post is to document a number of kids' antics. I write these things and then think back to a conversation I had back when Allison was doing the counselor / play therapy and I lamented that it was challenging to leave her alone any time. The woman (helpfully?) told me that I should "remind her of the rules of the room before you leave" and I thought to myself that I could never possibly come up with enough rules to cover the things she could come up with. Plus, two years later, she now has a willing accomplice.....

Monday - I get up and go to meet my friend at Fox for early morning exercise (it's our week off boot camp). Brian goes into the shower and the kids are playing nicely in their rooms. Brian comes out of the shower and the kids are nicely discussing what they wanted for a morning show. During the time between those two points - they had decided to have an "egg and spoon race" in the kitchen with about 8-9 raw eggs. Allison says "if you drop one and it cracks, you just get another."

Last week (and Brian and I calculated later than this could have been in the span of no more than 15 minutes) between when Brian left and it was time to take Jacob to summer school - Allison had created a spiderweb with two whole containers of dental floss in my room and then completely "painted" her hand in fingernail polish.

Getting Local

There are many great things about June. It's finally warm, school is out, and the farmer's market is open. We've enjoyed getting closer to our food supply. Two weekends ago, the farmer's market opened for the year. We also went and picked two flat of strawberries at a local farm. They mostly ended up frozen, as I wasn't really up for making jam and syrup this year.



This past Saturday we hit the farmer's market again (and found some wonderful rum cake). On Sunday we had Breakfast on the Farm in Poy Sippi, WI. They had a great breakfast of pancakes, hash browns, ham, and cheese. There was also a small petting zoo and you could tour the dairy barn. I learned that dairy cows can calf anytime of the year and that the mama cow gets two months "off" before the birth of her calf. The kids got to climb in a pen with a very weary baby cow, and pet a huge rabbit.

In need of a tape recorder

Sometimes I wish I had a tape recorder to keep track of the things the kids say - particularly Jacob. Today in the car it was this:

"Only boys can be pirates. Boys are awesome, and girls are pretty, and pirates are cool. So that's why only boys can be pirates."

Or the other day when the bath water was not sufficiently deep:

"the amount of water in this tub is called 'too low'."

Boot camp

Boot camp is kicking my butt. I signed up this summer for the YMCA Boot Camp, Tu-Th mornings at 6am. Two of my friends signed up too - so, you know, we couldn't hit the snooze button and decide for another hour of sleep. This week is the third week, and I am clearly much more out of shape than I care to admit. I probably am benefiting greatly from going. But - good grief - next YMCA session, I'm going to find myself a nice water aerobics class.

Brownie Scout

Allison had her "bridging ceremony" from daisy scouts to brownies last week. The girls walked over a bridge and then all together said the girl scout pledge - which has changed only a little since I was in girl scouts. Then there was an ice cream sundae building party. Allison's sundae had chocolate sauce, M&Ms, gummy bears, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and strawberries on it. I suspect there was some ice cream in the bowl too - but that's really an assumption.

Hartman Creek

Last weekend, we went camping at Hartman Creek. We found a place to paddle to and get ice cream. We also fished for very, very small fish. Brian caught two. I caught none. The kids wanted to be on "Dad's team."

Summer school quasi-dropout

Allison and Jacob started summer school on Monday. Jacob was signed up for this "Get Ready for Kindergarten" plan which was the full three hour time slot. I figured that I'd sign Allison up for three hours too (though the older kids go in one-hour increments). Jacob is so far having fun and meeting lots of kids who like superheroes and cars, though he doesn't know the kids names yet.

Allison's start has been rockier. She was signed up for Theater, Nature Detectives, and Primary Games (like kickball). She wanted Theater and Games - but the Nature one seemed to fit in the middle and we thought she might like it. Well, day one and neither Theater nor Games seemed to go well, the Nature one I guess did go well, but Allison was still not interested. The Games instructor even called me at home on Monday afternoon for a lengthy discussion on the issues. I got the impression (actually, I was told straight out) that this lady was the teacher and she was to be obeyed, and I needed to tell Allison that it was a privilege for her to be there. Well, a few minutes into this conversation and I knew there would be problems the whole time. Take two people (Allison and this lady) who both like to have control over a situation - and you don't get good things out of the other side.

On the one hand - the teacher is correct to have the authority over her class. On the other hand - if she is so hard-nosed that she can't find a way to be the adult and find a compromise in a confrontation with a 7-yr old on day 1, what can I expect on day 5 or 10?

So Allison is going to do just Theater (which apparently went much better on the second day). Hopefully, perhaps having just the one class to handle will work for her.