This morning I got up before dawn to go to my favorite yoga class - for the first time in four months. I stepped out into the dark, cool morning and into a face full of spider web. I recoiled and from a different angle could see a penny-sized spider just at my nose level. I went in to tell a sleeping Chris about this problem but came to my senses, turned the porch light on, and threw the broom at the whole giant orb web and spider like some kind of javelin. And ran to the car. Yoga was great.
The girls and I did a little clean up this morning and then headed out in the rain to pick up some planters from a freecycler. I love meeting these nice people. Then we went to the Children's Museum just for a little bit. Great. We picked up bread and then had grilled cheese and tomato soup and little sundae cups that we also had bought - which I normally wouldn't because of excess packaging, but - live it up! The girls played math games online and I did the dishes. Gracie amused herself sitting under the table and then at the dollhouse. Lastly, we dipped the leaves we found on our block in wax and investigated what tree they were from. We settled on Red Maple and Green Ash. This was my favorite website for our investigation. We planned on going to the woods to collect a better variety but it rained too much so we'll go tomorrow. We are planning on doing some wood construction to showcase our waxed leaves and accompanying paperwork (read: mostly crayon rubbings) for our science fair of sorts with the unschool group.
I really like this song right now.
This morning my yoga teacher told me I look golden, compared to how gray I looked back when I was applying to nursing school. This made me feel good even though I thought it was probably just a brassy dye job at the roots. At school, a student told me my hair was green, which I've been afraid of, and also gray. Is gray in? he kept asking. I told him I was giving him an F. He actually made me feel a little bad, but then another student told me I was the best teacher and his other art teacher tells him to stop doing graffiti and I told him I was just looking at these books right now and this site is cool. That made me feel good. I get mad when punk gang kids tag my neighborhood, but the gang problem does not wipe out that what a lot of my kids are doing is art and worthy of praise. I read a long time ago that the way to read Shakespeare is to annunciate each word in specific description of that word, poor example: say the word 'loud' loudly. I think that what they try to do with letters is to annunciate each one, personify it, so each letter can tell the story on its own.
We had a little party this weekend and went apple picking. The best part was, after playing along with the whole over-priced agritourist destination, we passed a farm that was selling gorgeous pumpkins for one fifth the price. I turned around and chatted it up with the lady and bought as many as I could fit in the trunk. I take great pleasure in their smooth, flourescent orangeness.
Do you know why I'm writing this all out? Because otherwise I will forget. (It sometimes seems I can't remember anything. I assimilate new information very quickly (unless I'm tired) but I can't retain anything I don't use regularly. I am afraid I will have Alzheimer's some day. I already have Gram's teeth and ears and anxiety. )
And do you know why I take the pictures? Because at the end of the day, I can flip through them and look dreamily at my children and love them so much they take my breath away - which I don't have time to do when they're each pulling me in a different direction a lot of the day.
I just talked to Chris and confessed very guiltily that his mom left us two little bacon wrapped steak leftovers when she dropped off the kids and I ate one and then let the kids eat the other one and now there's nothing but canned peaches and beans and old guacomole. Poor Chris.
In other news, I finally posted the chore chart and the girls are very excited to get a sticker and a penny for each thing they do (get dressed, brush teeth, shower, pick up toys...) and another sticker and penny if they do it without being told. WOBT. Like WWJD, only better. If they are perfect, it will only cost me $2.80 a week. We are also learning about money and budgets and I am explaining every daily cost to them and want to start paying for everything in cash so they can get a better idea. Today we spent $8 on stamps, mailed a $52 check for tickets to 3 different theatre presentations for kids, and $10 on bread and sundae cups. Most days we don't sped anything. ... Is that true? We'll soon discover as we continue to log expenditures together!
I am so happy to have them with me. We NEED this time together to establish our familyness, boundaries and expectations. There are some children I see who have the most horrible manners. I cannot bear this fate for mine and this is the only way I know how to tackle the task. To spend so much time together - just break through the initial period of thinking you can't do it, can't resist state-mandated free babysitting, and take the hard way out. It's only been a month and I am joyous.
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