Slider sweater

Mike and I were having a discussion about furniture.  We've had lots of those lately.  We've lived here three years and still haven't figured out how to furnish the living room.  It's a tricky room because there's very little wall space.  A sliding glass door takes up a lot of space. Private parental conversations are almost non-existent, because even when we think we're having a private conversation, a child or two is always listening.  So this is how it went:
Me: We could put a couch in that corner...
Mike: But it would cover up the slider.
Noah enters the room and says: Do we really need the slider?
Sarah (from the next room): What sweater?  It better not be one of MY sweaters!
Me: We live in a loony bin.

Snowball fight

 Sarah said, "Noah, you wanna have a snowball fight?"

 Noah hesitated and looked dubious.  Sarah said, "Don't worry; I'm not a crybaby anymore. Just don't throw very hard. And don't hit me in the face.  And wait till I'm ready..."

 She smashed some snow down his neck.

 snowballs in each hand

True to her word, she didn't cry!

Monopolizer

Noah's favorite game since he was five years old.

He wins 99% of the time.  He's disturbingly good at amassing money and property until he has bankrupted everyone else. 

A Knight to Remember

 I took Noah to a mother-son event at Living Waters Church.  Mike has taken Sarah to the daddy-daugther dance there for several years, and it was so nice that they had something for mothers and sons this time.

 We had to compete in a series of challenges together.  It was fun!

 The catapult was one of our favorites.

 Noah and the queen, who happens to be a friend of mine and wanted a picture with Noah, since her sons are grown.

Noah was a great sport and such a pleasant companion. 

Working myself out of a job

I'm trying to teach my kids to take responsibility for their stuff and try solve their own problems.  The biggest obstacle is putting aside my own control issues and letting them make mistakes so they can learn how to deal with them.  I had a prime opportunity today.

The kids take a science class on Tuesday mornings. They have a take-home test once a month.  They have a week to finish it.  Ideally, my responsible kids would make sure they finished the test on time.  But they need help scheduling their time (they're kids, after all), so I write it on the whiteboard to remind them.  Today I wrote "Finish science test" on the board.  Noah said he couldn't find his.  I gave him the speech again about keeping all his science stuff in his science bag.  Then I started mentally solving the problem of the missing test.  I caught myself and realized that this is HIS problem, not mine, I asked, "What are you going to do about your test?"

N: I don't know.  What should I do?
M: What COULD you do?
N: Mom! Just tell me!
M: I want you to think about it instead of just expecting me to fix it.
N: I guess I could ask the teacher tomorrow for another one.
M: You'd have to ask her today, because it's supposed to be finished by tomorrow.
N: I can't call her!  I don't know her phone number.  She's probably not home.
M: What else could you do?
N: Well...you could copy the questions from Sarah's test...
M: I don't have the time or desire to do all that writing. [He's starting to get upset, so I offer a suggestion].  Maybe you could call your friend in the class and see if he's done his yet.  If it's still blank, you could make a copy of it.
N: Ok, I'll call him.  Thanks for the idea!

He calls, and the kid hasn't started his test (I guess mine isn't the only procrastinator). I consider making Noah ride his bike to his friend's house and then to the library to make the copy, but I think that would cross the fine line between teaching responsibility and being mean and unmerciful.  So I tell him that I'll drive him but he needs to bring his own change for the copy machine. 

N: How much is a copy?
M: I think it's a dime a page.
N: I don't have a dime.
M: Hmm.  What are you going to do?
N: Mom!
[Interlude of silent staring at each other}
N: I have a quarter.  Will that work?

So off we go to the friend's house, pick up the test, arrive at the library, and he says, "I lost my quarter."  I have nothing nice to say to that, so I leave him in the car and go in the library, taking deep breaths on the way.  Eventually he appears with the quarter and stands around helplessly.  I point to the copy machine.  He tries to hand me the test, but I think it's a good time for him to figure out how to use the copy machine.  I end up helping him a lot, but he's never used a copy machine before, so that's to be expected.  I drive him back to his friend's house to return the test, and we go home. I hope he's working on his test now.  The whole experience was time consuming and frustrating for both of us, and I never know if I'm doing the right thing or not.  I tend to err on the side of doing too much for the kids.  I must force myself to step back and let them make mistakes.

Short, fluffy vacation

Last night I dropped the kids off at Kuk Sool Won and headed for Aldi.  (Aside:  I got gas for $2.99!).  On the way, I had a sudden impulse to go to that gigantic furniture store that takes up a whole city block.  I was looking at all that cushy furniture, and the car just strangely turned in there and parked. So I went in and started flopping on the couches.  I went upstairs to the massive chair section.  I had just sunk into a billowy recliner when the lights went out. 

I fumbled downstairs in the dark and found the doors locked.  I started to panic, but then I realized that this could be a wonderful vacation!  I'd get a great night's sleep on my choice of comfortable beds, and no one would talk to me!  I only wished I'd brought a book or that the place sold TVs.  Then I remembered that the kids' class ended in less than an hour, and nobody would be there to pick them up.  They thought I was making a quick Aldi trip and would have no idea that I was trapped in the furniture store.  Oh well.  Eventually someone would call Mike, and he would go get them.

An employee was very startled to discover me, promptly shooed me out, and brought my vacation to an abrupt halt.  When I finally got to Aldi, the checkout girl said, "Oh, you got a haircut!"  I didn't even know that she knew I existed!  I wonder if she knows my name?

Harry

Noah read the entire Harry Potter series, and now he and Sarah are going around wearing bathrobes, carrying flashlights for wands, and casting spells on the cats.  Today they spent considerable time hovered over the sink with food coloring, making potions.  Whenever a poor, unsuspecting cat walks into the room, they point their wands at it and yell "Stupefy! Reducto!" and other things I don't understand.  Then they cackle gleefully if the cat stops moving or does whatever they expected it to do.  Once, they cast a spell on Shiloh, and she glanced at them and kept right on walking.  She sat down to lick a paw, and Noah mused, "Hmm.  Didn't work.  She must have giant's blood in her."  I didn't know what that meant, until someone explained to me that a giant is some kind of freakish humanoid that is impervious to spells.

This is all way beyond my comfort zone and scope of interest.  I can't get into wizards, humanoids, and other "fantasy" type books/movies.  That's not the stuff of MY fantasies.  Perhaps I'm missing a lot of great literature by being closed minded about it.  Fortunately, there's enough great literature (minus the freaks) to keep me busy for the rest of my life.

Meanwhile, I'm learning just enough about Harry Potter so I can commune with the natives.  I even bought them wands today to facilitate their play.  I went to Menards, found a 48" dowel for 64 cents, and asked the lumber guys to cut it into wands for me.  After they stopped laughing, they did it.  And then THEY started using them as wands, casting spells on each other and fellow employees across the store.  I didn't have all day to watch them play with my wands, so I said nicely, "You know, you guys could buy yourselves a dowel and make your very own wands."  They were contemplating it when I left. 

This is a new spell that Noah invented, called "Liftiosis!"