Math was a little bit messy today but a whole lot of fun.
We use Math Mammoth, I like it a lot
*Inchworm
This weekend I had had it with wading through the knee deep paraphernalia in the boy’s rooms. A possible exaggeration, but either way it felt knee deep. If you can’t walk across the floor with out stepping on something it’s too messy. I try. I trrrrrryyyyy to organize their spaces as to make clean up easier. A drawer for ‘things that go’ and a drawer for ‘guys’ a draw for ‘legos’ and the obligatory clothing storage.
‘battle moves’
But the organization doesn’t happen and the last minute scramble for handkerchiefs and underwear and the ever important sport cup is always harried and unpleasant, particularly when wallets or cups are found in random spots that are not the drawer designated for them, or when you don’t have underwear because instead they are in your sock drawer.
Choosing an Egg
And the reality is that the boys are in training, leaving them to wallow in the sea of papers. Sea. Of. Papers. that my 8 year old has collected this year, from actual comics from the newspaper, to drawings, and letters, is not an option. They won’t learn to organize their space if someone doesn’t teach them. Again. And again. And so as the day of cleaning. (day of cleaning 
) their rooms. wound down, with very few things in the goodwill bag, more in the garbage and most of it filed away. Except the two drawers of paper, and the desk (which was removed from the room) of paper. What to do.
Proclick
I pulled out my trusty Proclick, a birthday gift from The Man. It is basically a big hole puncher that helps you create notebooks (used for organizing our school days) and giving me the freedom to create my own planner/chorechart/calender thingy. An ongoing process of course. The spiral bindings are available on amazon in bulk or a an local office supply store. The best part is you can unclick or reclick to add things to the books you create. I only have purchased the 85 page bindings but definitely for this project and some of their other school books could use bigger ones.
The next day we sat down and created a scrapbook of sorts, full of things he had copied on his grandparents copier, things he has printed off the computer about different topics, cards, drawings, postcards, letters. You name it I think we punched hole in it. It was like making a super easy scrapbook without the glue and tape (maybe a little glue and tape). In the end we had a book of memories.
Or Me Mores…whichever.
*Memories-Cats
We skipped our traditional camping on memorial day weekend this year for a little family one on one. The man has been traveling a lot lately, the yard has many projects waiting for us what with the sun putting in random appearances here and there. Up until last week we were planning on making the five hour drive to the rendezvous point but somewhere in the last week it just all became too much.
Too much driving, too much away from home time, too much, too much. And we realized we were not anticipating the trip but making a list of all the things we wouldn’t be getting done instead.
And so we stayed home. We worked in the yard, we played with friends, there were even s’mores over a fire. Fire! My Marshmallow is on fire! Mom! We took the kids to the beach, not the one five hours away where old friends gathered around a guitar player but the one much closer. The one where He and I began our journey. We took our children to a house they never knew near a beach they spend a lot of time on but have never lived at.
We reflected, on our early days, on the road that led us to here. The beach trails and bike rides and campfires that took The Man and I from boy and girl to Dad and Mom. On the happiness of beginning together now in the middle of this little boy whirlwind, and what a whirlwind it is. A constant onslaught of information and noise. Of song lyrics and Greek myth facts. “I’m not sure this book is entirely accurate, this is not what Percy Jackson said about the god of the Olympics” There are conversations bordering on grown up. “Well Rick Riordian, is just one man, and there is a lot of information about the Greeks, he may not have it all down”.
Our weekend was not what we thought it was going to be, yet it held the same essential qualities that we look for in the five hour journey. Old friends, beaches, campfires and stars. Good conversations, a fair amount of silliness and just a little rain.
*A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall-Bob Dylan
Because the week doesn’t always go your way, you can’t always get what you want, but you’ll find, sometimes, that you get what you need.
*You can’t always get what you want-Rolling Stones
Ever since he read the Percy Jackson series (twice) my eight year old has been telling people that his real father is Poseidon.
Apparently I ‘hooked up’ a lovely colloquialism he picked up from the book (thank you) but has no idea what it means (thank you, thank you) with Poseidon, before I got married to his father. What with all that time I spent in Ancient Greece and all, I used to get around, if you know what I mean.
Sure it was awkward at first explaining the four year long gestation period and then of course the questions of why the baby could move water with his mind. Now that it’s all out in the open, it just so much easier. Sure, the Man had a period of adjustment, but hey what can you say when you are married to the mother of a demigod? Really?
*hey Hey- Led Zeppelin
Inspired by Soulemama, but on Wednesday because I’m shaking it up like that.
Somehow, in the middle of all my careful Quilty list making, this tulip project slipped in and became a quilt instead of a tablerunner. Sometimes that happens. Especially when you are spending all that time at your quilty station, staring at something, it just morphs…and this one did.
Mr. Turtle pin cushion is disapproving from his perch on the unfinished nine patches from the list. He thinks we should stay the course! no deviation! He is afterall a turtle.
*Stand by your man- Tammy Wynette
Saturday was bright and sunny, and we worked hard in the yard, gardening, moving dirt from one area to the next, weeding. We new the rain was on it’s way. And even so we optimistically planted a few starts in the ground (although as a rule I don’t like to do that until after Memorial Day-it rains, a lot, here).
Old pot, new herb garden
Beverly’s blueberries, they cometh.
strawberries.
We didn’t get too crazy with the outside planting, we know how it goes here in the wet, wet, northwest. Our indoor garden is still going strong.
Give a little bit=Supertramp
*Everyday I write the book-Elvis Costello