Five Hours.

Jane on her way to 'Pretty-school'

Five Hours.
I have suddenly moved into a new class of people. It’s strange, exhilarating, and sometimes a little bit sad. I now, officially, have five hours a week sans children. Wow. Not having a baby around has been strange for some time, and having everyone (sort of) sleep through the night has also been weird, but nothing is more alien than having a few hours at home by myself. Jane is in, what she likes to call, pretty-school twice a week for a few hours. She is adjusting to finally being like one of the big kids by crying and hanging onto my legs with an other-worldly force as I drop her off. As soon as I’m out of ear-shot, she happily makes friends and influences the more naïve three year olds. Let’s face it, she has a lot to teach them, after all—she’s the youngest of four.

What do I do with this time? So far I haven’t been able to steer clear of laundry, dishes, bed-making and Costco tripping. One of these days I’m going to branch out and do something for myself. Old habits are hard to break.

In other news: Today at school the kids were supposed to dress up like one of their favorite characters from a book. I love this idea. I’ve always wanted to dress up as Emily Dickenson, but haven’t come across any white Victorian gowns lately. However, the kids were much easier to manage. I made Canyon a camp half-blood t-shirt. Our obsession with Percy Jackson is slowly moving down the ranks of kids. Lily had it, now Canyon—Alice will shortly follow. I also made Lily a Hunger Games t-shirt. I know what you’re thinking: “You let your daughter read the Hunger Games?” And the answer is yes. And she loves it. And I know it’s violent. There. I made her a “District 12 Tribute” shirt. She LOVES it.

Percy & Katniss

We’re just gearing up for Halloween. So far Canyon wants to be an old-fashioned aviator (don’t ask me where he gets his inspiration), he’s been wandering around the yard for weeks with his bike helmet and swim goggles making airplane noises. Lily wants to be Elfaba from “Wicked” (you know, the wicked witch of the West). Alice wants to be Princess Leia (shocker)—but we’re going to mix it up a bit—she wants to be Leia of the Hoth persuasion (you know, white boots and furry vest). Jane, bless her heart, wants to be Snow White. If any of you have ideas for costumes on any of these…let me know.

Oh yeah, disclaimer: These are apt to change. Several times.

It looks like I have something to fill those five hours.

With a Perspective.

Here I am in the recording studio.

I just wanted to leave a little note to tell you all I’m going to be on NPR. That’s right, I’m leaving the world with ‘my perspective.’

So our local NPR station has a series called ‘Perspectives,’ where they have local ‘regular’ people read their perspective about something. I always like listening to the perspectives and have thought that it might be fun to do it sometime. So last week, I thought, why not? So I sent in my perspective and they contacted me the next day to come in and record it. It was a pretty great experience. I got to go into San Francisco to the station and record in a real recording studio. For those of you in the Bay Area, I’ll just throw this out there… I got to sit in Michael Krasny’s chair.

The sound engineer, Howard, was extremely nice and talked me through my virgin recording experience. He said if I liked the sound of my voice that I would be like all the other ego driven voices at KQED and get a job there. I was nervous, but it was easy because it was just me, alone in the room, and Howard and Dustin in the control booth. I only had to read through my piece twice and we had to edit it a little to fit the time restrictions.

And guess what? I LOVE the sound of my voice.

Did I mention that they took a really, not so great, photo of me. Oh well. On the radio it’s all about how you sound, not how you look.

Oh, also, did I mention that I get paid. Yep. Just enough to cover the parking at the ferry building where we had dinner.

So, it airs Monday August 30^th at 7:35 am. They’re also going to re-run it Saturday, September 4^th at the same-ish time. I hope that you listen. Here’s how you can listen:

You can listen live, here.

And on the archives right here, for Monday, the 30^th. (Ignore my extremely close-up photo)

I know, it’s not an ironman, but it’s the best I’ve got.

With a perspective, I’m Emily.

I look so natural in Michael's chair, no?

School

I don't buy my kids new school clothes. Am I a bad mom? My mom always got us new school clothes, but I guess I feel like I don't need to. Summer weather hangs on here until October, so there's not really a clothing season change. Their summer clothes and clothes from last year seem fine. And if, during the year, they need some pants or shoes, we just go and get them. Alice and Jane have the advantage of the bins of clothes downstairs that used to be Lily's--so I almost never have to get them anything at all.

The beauty of it: they don't seem to even be aware that there is such a thing as new school clothes.

So, I'll posit this question one more time. Am I a bad mom?

Raspberries

We spent the morning picking raspberries. I used to send the kids to do it on their own, but they always came back with a pitiful amount of berries and the excuse that they had picked all they could. I went with them this time to motivate them. We came back with a fair amount. More than usual. Jane was scared of the berry bushes for some reason and spent the whole hour asking Lily ‘why aren’t you scared?’

Picking the berries reminds me of my grandma. She had raspberry bushes too. I remember her dining room window overlooking the berries and plenty of hummingbird sightings with a white crock of raspberry jam for our toast shining in the middle of the table.

It was strange I was thinking about this because Canyon suddenly said:

“You know what’s funny about your mom’s family?”

“What.”

“Your mom’s name is four letters (Dona), her mom’s name is four letters (Idon), and her mom’s name is four letters (Erma).”

I guess the raspberries have this ‘Idon effect’ on more than just me. Canyon’s never met Grandma Idon or seen her berry bushes—but suddenly he was thinking of her as he thoughtfully squished the berries between his teeth.

Alice's Birthday

Alice told me for her fifth birthday that she wanted black and white cupcakes because, “it’s like the dark side and the light side.” Yes, we are still on Star Wars. I’ll take Star Wars over Barbie any day.

I can’t believe that Alice is five and getting ready to start school. She, of all our kids, is the most capable of spending the day away from home. She’s independent, assertive and social. She’ll be fine. She is my little helper and whenever there is an audible fart somewhere in the house, she happily owns up to it. She loves Star Wars and playing with her boy cousins, yet in the same moment loves jewelry and knows how to wear it. She was, as Lily says, “born to have her ears pierced.” She is enjoying her new pierced ears and her new princess Leia shirt. And I’ll take her over the others any day because she always makes her bed and cleans her room—as a mom, I gotta love that.

Happy Birthday Alice!

The little Star War's cupcakes. They were all chocolate to represent the 'Dark Side.'


Alice blowing out the candles.


The Princess Leia t-shirt I made for Alice. (I just did the applique)

Neglect

I can’t believe that summer is almost over. We have been busy, of course, and aren’t quite ready for school to start again. First we had a wonderful Reeder family reunion in the Tetons and then we sent Lily off to Spain. While she was in Spain, swimming in the Mediterranean, we were at swim team and swimming in the pool everyday. Then after she got home (more on Spain later) we all went on our annual camping trip to Tahoe. Mixed in there we had girls’ camp and Alice’s birthday. Really, the pictures are going to have to tell it all for me. I don’t have Tahoe pictures yet, those are forthcoming:

The kids enjoying the cold water at Phelp's Lake in the Tetons.

Our whole family on a hike. Jane was big enough to do the hikes, but wasn't very happy about it!

Swimming at the pool everyday. Canyon had swim team and Alice and Jane 'practiced.' By the end of the summer Alice's ready for swim team and Jane's 'swimming all by myself mama!'

Sparklers on the fourth. We had a great time even though Lily was in Spain. She had plenty of Celebrating to do when Spain won the world cup. Ole!

All Things Lily.

Lily had her birthday a month ago. She is ten. Yes. Ten. I know. I’m in trouble. She requested an angel food cake for her birthday. A homemade angel food cake. I have attempted to make an angel food cake, twice, from scratch before. And both times, I was not successful.

A few years ago we had invited some long-time Prusso friends over (their kids grew up with Dustin and his brothers) and she had brought this amazing angel food cake. I remember at the time being enamored with it and begging her to help me make one and she had agreed. I figured that she had agreed in the same way that we all agree as we meet new stranger/friends at the park to ‘get together sometime,’ as we pretend to exchange phone numbers. However, in desperation, I called them and even though they were totally doing other things, more important things, promised to help me. So the afternoon of Lily’s birthday, Barbara and Monty (both of them) came over and held my hand as they walked me through the process. They were so great, they made me do it all myself as they gave very specific instructions and explained why everything had to be ‘just so.’

Lily, 'helping' to put the icing on her perfect cake.

And the result of this afternoon was an amazing, delicious angel food cake. And I have so much gratitude for this couple. I mean they’re retired they should be traveling or playing golf, not stuck in my kitchen with screaming kids helping me make a cake. What a great birthday gift to me.

We invited them for dinner and they came and we ate and we inhaled that delicious cake. And the best part was that Lily was SO AMAZED with that cake. She’s at the age where she can really appreciate things like homemade angel food cake.

In other Lily news, big Lily news…she’s going to leave us for a month this summer to go to Spain. Yes, that’s right, Spain. She was invited by my brother-in-law and his Spanish wife to go with them. It was not easy to say yes, trust me. But I had to look at this in a much larger perspective. Not that I’m losing a daughter for a month, but how this experience is going to change her life. Forever. I’m excited for her and nervous for me. But, as she said when I mentioned that she wouldn’t be able to do swim team this year if she went, “Mom, I’ll be swimming in the Mediterranean everyday.” Well. It’s hard to argue with that.

A Beach in Malaga.

So she’ll be off in less than a month with a passport in her pocket, an itouch loaded up with books, movies, music and skype (so she can call home), and a suitcase packed with swimsuits and sandals—enough to get her through a month of the Mediterranean.

Am I jealous? Yes. Very. I guess this is one of those sacrifices that parents make for kids. My parents did the same for me.

I did, however, renew my passport as she got hers. Cause, you never know.

Last bit of Lily news. She insisted that I make her a new quilt, once that would be bunk-bed compatible. So, with a burst of creative energy not seen since Fall of ’08, I made her a new quilt. The self-imposed stipulations being I could spend no money. I almost made it. I spent $4 on the binding. But the rest of the quilt was made of scraps that I’ve had or inherited. I didn’t turn out too bad and the bonus: She LOVES it.

Her quilt. On the top bunk.

This concludes my post of all things Lily. Feel free to leave comments that support my decision to send a ten-year-old to Spain—I’m in need of encouragement and commiseration. Do those words even go together?

Remember, I have a passport. Invite me to Europe. Anyone.