Wordless Weeken Post

Reasons Why Charlotte Couldn't Go To Bed Last Night ( a belated what they said Wednesday)

* She could not stop speaking in an "accent" and it was making her cry

* She loves me

* Just laying in bed and doing nothing was too stupid to "precipitate" (participate) in

* the moonlight "rays" were too bright unless you turned out the light, and if you turn out the light it was scary

* the blanket is scratchy and when she itches it makes this weird sound

* she thought by now I would be reasonable and let her lay on the living room floor. 

These TWO

I swear that it was yesterday when I was cleaning up the 2 and 3 year old combined bedroom in our two bedroom apartment, making the tinerkbell toddler bed, and folding blankets on on the Elmo toddler bed, picking up the play kitchen, and stopping Luke from putting all the wrong colored marker lids on the markers and freaking Molly out.  In those days I thought life was hard, but really it was easy.  

These days, I am overwhelmed by high school choices, and class selections, and making the best choices,and the best plans to lead them to college, and to career to college programs they have selected.  It hardly seems possible.  Now I spend my days, driving to school clubs, and being unknowingly volunteered to host community service brainstorming sessions, and trying to remember that this time too, is sweet and fleeting.   Playing together means they've sinc-ed their kindles. 

I try and remember it's not a burden, but a good thing when I pick Luke up from science club and he's volunteered me to drive his friend Alec home.  He trusts me to help his friend out, and I've done something to raise him to be the kind of kid who volunteers to do so, rather then leaving his friend in a lurch.  

I try to remember when Molly announces that she told the director she was sure she could come up with a disco costume for the play, for tomorrow that someday I will miss interrupting my schedule to hunt down disco attire in 2016.  How boring will my life be then? 

I try to remember when simultaneously trusting them to do their work and stay on top of their grades, and also at the same time teaching them how to do so, by religiously checking their grades, and schedules that doing so demonstrates I care.  That I need to not only tell them it's on them and expect good things, but also show them how to do that.  Because they're big kids, but they're still kids. 

I try and remember that when Luke is facebook messaging me recipes at 12:30 am from a friends house, that in addition to being these kids I love, they're quickly becoming people I like,  

Tonight as we finalize classes for one, and start in on the other, I will try and remember that registering for high school wasn't so hard back when I went to school, and walked barefoot in the snow... up hill both ways....  Oh wait.  I think that was my parents. 

The Winter That Nearly Wasn't

So I had good intentions when the winter started about blogging again daily.  About combing my loves of children, and family, and sarcasm, and cooking, and ridiculous rants, and maybe some random stuff about fashion (or lack there of) but then we sort of broke our computer.  Fear not, its been replaced!  (Sing hallelujah in the streets folks!)  So of course on this first, vital post back what I really want to talk about is the weather. Yeah, I said it.  The weather. 

We seriously had the worst winter I can remember in that, instead of a beautiful, long season of early sunsets, and cold winter nights huddled up at home, while the magic of fresh falling snow blanketed the world, we had what I like to call the never ending almost spring.  In that it was 40 some degrees, brown, muddy and occasionally icy.  I was basically in a seasonal depression about from thanksgiving on.  Christmas didn't feel like Christmas, January felt like late March and it was a great big grey bucket of suck.  I know, I know many of you thought it was great -- you were wrong ;)  If you don't like snow -- I advise you don't live in Michigan folks!

But at last, the last week of February when I had all but given up hope, winter came.  Eleven inches of beautiful white stuff, followed up by two snow days, and days of continual flurry.  (Most winters living JUST inside where the lake effect snow comes to die, every day is a soft dusting of flurry, like living in a perpetual snow globe.) Then a second storm set schools releasing mid way thru the day, offices shutting down and another beautiful pounding of eight inches. 

WE went sledding, we built snow men, we made hot cocoa, and for just a little while, the seasons had set themselves right.   But it was not to last. Two days later in what can only be described as themost "pure Michigan" moment I have seen, my kids were outside riding bikes, in hoodies and t-shirts, neighbor kids were in shorts, throwing the last of the snow balls at eachother.  It was 65 degrees and the snow was going away.  But at least it finally showed.   Better late then never I suppose.