Backtracking to Halloween.

Bubble, bubble toil and trouble.  That's what it took to plan and carry out Rachel's Halloween party this year.  Thankfully, it was a success!

Would you believe one of the kids didn't want to play the donut game?  He said he wasn't sure if he would win.  Are you kidding me?  Free donut = everyone wins.  Silly kid.  BTW, it wasn't this one - he was first in line and pretty pumped about it... can you tell?

Look at that game face!

My very own Hermione Granger, Vampire, Kitty cat and Aphrodite.

The cute girls I got to "chaperone" for the first grade pumpkin patch field trip.

A real live Halloween visitor, who got smashed with a basketball soon not long after making the arduous trek across our driveway. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall fun.

Being a cheapskate isn't always all it's cracked up to be.  Here's why: it sucks all the joy out of any family outing costing more than, say, $10.  To illustrate, I will compare two outings we've taken this fall.  The first was a long drive up into the mountains to some natural hot springs along the river.  It didn't cost a dime.  Sure, we froze our patookies off looking for just the right pool to fit our family without scalding ourselves, then we froze them again trying to get access to a bathroom in the vicinity, but we had a fantastic time!  The backside of the Sawtooth Mountains was our backdrop, the sound of the Payette River accompanied the girls' squeals of delight, and we were shrouded in a glorious mist and early fall color to complete the effect.   Here we are:

Completely worth the drive.  And completely free so we didn't mind spending a bit of cash in Idaho City for yummy lunch on the way.

On the other hand, we spent a night last week at the pumpkin patch.  It's not that we didn't have fun, it's that forking out a ton of cash puts on the pressure to get a return on the investment.  Plus, the kids kind of get the "gim-me's" when they know you're spending money because, to them, mom and dad have an endless supply of resources to be spent at will... on them, of course.  Still, it was a gorgeous fall evening - and we even made it didactic by tying our experience getting lost in the corn maze to our journey through life.  So, yay!  A fistful of money well spent, right?  Sort of.  My point is, sometimes the simplest (and often most inexpensive) things are the best.  And that doesn't just apply to cheapskates.

Saturday(aka: recover from a crazy week day).

We woke up in the afterglow of a BYU win Friday night.  Tim and I had gone to a restaurant downtown where all 20 TV screens were trained on the game, but, understandably, we were the only ones rooting for BYU.  I even neglected to wear my school's attire for fear someone would spit in my food.  There's something so "in-your-face" about strolling into a Boise restaurant wearing the opposing team's gear when you're up by three scores.  That didn't stop Tim.

In any case, it was pretty much the first time I'd sat down all day - what with a 1st grade art lesson, early release from school, and hosting 12 six-year-olds at a Halloween party.  So I didn't have to give Tim a hard time about the fact that watching BYU clobber Boise State doesn't exactly count as a date.  I was ecstatic just to eat something besides popcorn and candy and to put my feet up.  High standards around here, I tell you.

I'd promised Anna breakfast at IHOP and Saturday morning was as good a time as any.  She needed a few new shirts so we capped off our morning with a bit of shopping. While we were in the dressing room, Anna noticed that I was not picking out anything for myself.  She wondered why I never buy myself new clothes, to which I responded, "Well, I don't really grow out of anything like you guys (not that I'm going the other direction, either), so I don't replace my clothes unless they are worn out, or I haven't worn them in over a year (can be otherwise stated: they are so lame and out of style I can't bear the thought of wearing them in public).  She replied:  "It must be boring to be an adult because you don't get any new clothes."

Well, if getting new clothes is the gold standard for boredom busters, I suppose it is pretty boring to be me.  But I set the record straight by assuring my oldest daughter that I am never, EVER bored.  In fact, sometimes I miss being bored.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the weather, taking a nap (in my case), and catching up on to-dos.  Then Tim and I went out to visit with some friends at a birthday party.  Our babysitter had explicit instructions to put the kids to bed at a certain time and report to me if they did anything besides read or sleep after the appointed time.  I got a good report, other than for Eve - who spent a good half hour running around naked before settling into her pajamas and reading a book.  I could tell the babysitter was a bit baffled when I replied that her behavior was "perfectly normal".  Sorry babysitter, that's how we roll around here.

And there you have it - an average Saturday..

Food, glorious food.

I have some friends who despise when people post pictures of food.  Friends whose code of conduct I will now violate.  Considering that I spend at least an hour a day preparing food for my family (at least), I don't suppose it would hurt to chronicle that fact by posting these:

Our final tomato harvest yielded six jars of salsa.  Not terrible, I suppose.

And I made the pesto sauce for this pizza from our last crop of basil.  Mmmm.

In completely unrelated news, here is the art project I have planned for tomorrow's 3rd grade art lesson.  We're studying Stuart Davis, an abstract American artist who used a variety of subjects, but most notably did cityscapes.  My cityscape (in his style) is entitled Autumn in New England.  Kind of sounds like a Barry Manilow song.  Hmmm.

The first month of our epilepsy journey.

I'm pretty sure I read too much.  As soon as I found out Lily had epilepsy, I researched every possible treatment available (for her particular type of epilepsy).  Surprisingly, the diagnosis did not hit me until I dove into the literature and studied the possibilities for those suffering from epilepsy - its potential effects on family dynamics, the self-confidence issues many suffer from, the horrific side effects some patients experience.  I could go on and on.  The more I read, the more downtrodden I felt.

Fortunately, I balance my research with my faith and my study of the scriptures and am truly blessed to have the perspective they bring.  The gospel is such a grounding influence, one that brings immense hope amid life's challenges.  Epilepsy is a big deal.  And it isn't.  It's just one of the many things that people experience that can be translated for good.  Having grown up in a family with a disabled brother, I can testify to the blessings that come with special needs children. 

Lily had a rough week after starting her medication.  Her seizures ceased within 48 hours.  However, she was absolutely miserable, burying her head in a pillow and wearing a heating pad on her upset stomach for days to alleviate her round-the-clock discomfort.  I sent her to school several of these days, encouraging her to "push through" as much as she could, only to get a call (within hours) from the nurses office requesting that I come pick her up.  I prayed fervently, asking for her pain to subside so that she could get on with life, knowing that, for many patients, the adjustment to medication takes months.  Some have to try several different kinds before finding the most effective one with the least side effects.  In Lily's own words, she'd "rather have the seizures".  It was bad - I didn't know if I could watch my 8-year-old go through that kind of pain indefinitely and I spent hours finding ways to alleviate her suffering.  After five days of misery, I called the neurologist, who lowered the dose (she was already on the "minimum" dose for her weight) temporarily.

She requested that we up the dose after a week or two, but I can't bring myself to do it.  She is seizure-free (by all appearances) and still complains of a headache and tummy ache every single day.  (Although the complaints appear to be the worst when she's asked to practice piano or clean her room - she's still Lily, all right. )  She's much more functional now, though, so I'm in no hurry to increase the dosage.

It's tough to watch your child go through something difficult.  Tim and I are both grateful for the opportunity to exercise compassion, though, and have noticed an increase in patience and love for this child of ours who used to evoke our tempers so easily.  She is learning and growing(the hard way - which I'm beginning to realize is really the only way), and so are we.  One month down.

Oozing with art.

I signed myself to teach art once a month in each of my three grade-schooler's classes.  Add to the once every four week Joy School lessons I have on my plate, the weekly church youth activities and the 2-3 monthly Sunday lessons and it makes for lesson overload.  Why, oh why didn't I just go for that education major in the first place?

So here's a favorite art project I did with the fifth graders a couple of weeks ago.  I took pictures of each of the kids, printed out each portrait in black and white, cut them in four sections and had them use a different medium to complete each quadrant : collage, oil pastel, tempera paint, and colored pencil (they were expected to free hand that one).  They turned out great!  So here's mine (thanks to my lovely four-year-old model):

Fun, huh?

Besties, Shmesties.

Every time I catch one of my daughters say "she's my best friend" I kind of cringe a little.  Okay, a lot.  In fact, I gear up to give her a big fat lecture.  Best friends are just not my thing.  Call it semantics, but it just comes off as so exclusionary, giving preferential treatment to a single friend when there are so many others out there to round out one's life and experience.  Don't get me wrong.  I have a best friend.  He is my husband.  I like him more than anyone else, we share all our secrets with one another, spend as much time together as possible, and we even wear rings to prove it.  But, as an adult, I have found that there's not room in my life for another "best friend" or even a best group of friends - I definitely like to play the field more than that. And I guess I'd hope the same for my kids.

Actually, I've kind of always been this way.  I've never seen myself as being part of a certain social circle.  Sure, it's not as if I broke down my day, spending an equal amount of time with the people in my life.  Still, I never found myself getting too comfortable with any particular friend or group of friends.  At first, it was probably in an effort to protect myself.  As one who moved around a lot, perhaps I wanted to avoid getting emotionally attached to someone only to be ripped away and transferred to another state(or country).  Perhaps.  But even if the initial motivation was self-preservation, I think the end result of spreading oneself thin has multiple benefits.

First, if you spend all of your time with the same person (or people, for that matter), some of your identity and self-confidence gets wrapped up in your little group.  It's easy to experience some insecurity when, somehow, the person you thought was your best friend begins to spend time with someone else.  As a kid, in particular, you might take it personally, like their desire to hang out with another friend is a reflection of some deficiency of yours.  I don't ever want my kids' confidence to be tied to a best friend's exuberance (or lack thereof) at spending time with them.

Second, when I am less wrapped up in my own comfort at feeling settled in a group of friends, I am more inclined to reach out to others. It might be easy to forget the new kid, or the disabled one, or simply the lonely when you are perfectly content in your social circumstances.  At least that's been my experience.  Then again, I suppose, for some people, having an established set of friends might give them the self-confidence to reach out to others and bring them into their circle?   See?  I'm not anti-best friend - just explaining why I've never really claimed to have one.

And finally, life is so much richer with a broad circle of friends with varied backgrounds, interests, skills and experiences.  I am grateful that I've given time for certain relationships to develop, even when, at the outset, I might have written them off.  I'm deeply enriched by the friendships I've made and kept, even when it might have been easier or more fun to just hang with the more of the same time and time again.

This is not to say that I disapprove of best friends (or those who have them) as a general rule - more to explain why I choose to encourage my kids to favor a broader circle of friends rather than a narrow one.  It's my style (not necessarily the right one), and an approach I feel has a positive outcome.  So, at our house, my girls have learned to use the word "good friend" lest they incur a talking to from their old mother.   :)