It is now the end of Week 12 of summer vacation. Week 12. Twelve. Did you hear me? TWELVE.

One more week (and a long weekend) to go.

I think, all in all, I’m in better shape than I was this time last year. This time last year I was ready to throw myself under a bus. Seriously. It wasn’t pretty.

During this circle around the sun, we have had a good summer, a busy summer, and one with more balance. Together we have had

·         evening walks

·         feasts of summer fruits

·         barbecues

·         creek play

·         rambling in the woods

·         swimming in lakes, rivers, and backyard pools

·         a trip to San Francisco and Oakland

·         a zoo visit

·         museum visits

·         glorious day-long brunches with friends at home

I’ve had plenty work to keep me occupied; it keeps my brain from turning to mush and eases my career worries.

Lucas and Asher have been occupied more this summer, too. I adore my children and think they are brilliant and fascinating (see this blog for evidence), but I know that we all benefit from having experiences away from one another. I don’t claim to have achieved balance in parenting/work, but it is definitely a major goal. Something I continue to strive for.

Asher has made friends and looks forward to playing with his kids now at Ring-A-Rosies preschool. He has even made it through a handful of full days, when I didn’t pick him up until 4 p.m. due to serious deadlines, and he napped pretty well on a little mat like the other kids.

Lucas has had a bunch of wonderful experiences with summer day camps and other activities (like pottery and soccer). Some weren’t so great (mainly the Fair Oaks Recreation and Park District day camp due to the “Thriller” incident) and we probably won’t be trying those again. But others were awesome. He is hoping to do more of the Science Adventures camps and Aquatics camps next year. The Effie Yeaw nature camps, though only a half-day, are lots of fun and Lucas feels really comfortable there. Plus he gets to hike the trails in the American River Parkway. He has done some amazing art projects that I wouldn’t have even considered doing with him because they are outside my experience. I wish that the less expensive camps had worked out to be winners; naturally it was the more expensive camps that Lucas really took to.

Next week, there is no day care. I’ll have to beg, borrow, and steal moments in which to work, when others can run herd on my little darlings. Grandma? Grandma?

I just can’t help but feel, now that kids all over town are back in school, that perhaps 13 weeks off during the summer might be a little excessive. It is very intense living with a choleric 7-year-old and a 2-and-a-half-year-old toddler!

Especially if one is just the tiniest, wee bit choleric, oneself.

My son is so competent! It was a lot to ask of him, really: sending him to the CSUS Aquatics Camp for five full days, where he was in the youngest group, the Guppies. It was physically challenging and challenging emotionally to be with a group of kids he didn’t know, with an instructor he didn’t know, doing things he had never done before. But oh, did he rise to the occasion!

The first day the kids learned canoeing. The second day was sailing. The third, kayaking. And the fourth day they tried wind-surfing.

Parents were invited to come at the end of the fourth day to see what our little angels could do. Ian, Asher and I went to see and try some of the water sports ourselves. Lucas was so natural, so confident. “Wanna go on the hydro bikes, Dad?”

We biked—on the water!— and kayaked with Lucas, with Ian and I taking turns. I had hoped we could all go sailing on the tiny sailboats, with Lucas at the tiller, but unfortunately the timing didn’t work out and Asher wouldn’t tolerate the life vest.

While kayaking, Lucas said, “Mom, do you dare me to flip over? Do you double-dare me?” I had to dare, and double- and triple-dare—even “ten-dare” him to flip over (to flip over a perfectly good boat on purpose), while he savored the suspenseful moment. I had to bite my lip and trust that he knew what he was doing. He flipped the kayak over, then righted it, and climbed back aboard, without dropping his paddle. It was awesome.

Then Lucas demonstrated the “wiggle board,” which I guess is a wind-surf board without the sail. He stood and jumped and wiggled it all over, and eventually paddled it in to shore.

I flashed to a picture of him as a young man on a beach, hanging out with friends and catching waves. And there will be girls (or boys, whatever!) gazing at him, admiring his prowess in the water. And I’m still savoring that dreamy image. 

Despite lots of working for me (12 hours) and Lucas’s case of folliculitis caused by prolonged exposure in the lake last week, we managed to have some lovely moments this weekend.

* early-morning walk by myself

* clay play

* dinner out with Papa and Grandma S for her birthday

* yummy BLT sandwiches made by Ian

* watching Asher dance and sing, “I like my Mom and Dad”

* an evening walk through the neighborhood all together

* finding our first green and brown acorns of the season on the ground

* watching nimble Lucas leaping to and fro across the drainage ditch (and hoping he wouldn’t fall)

* a quick trip to the thrift store for school clothes for Lucas: four pairs of pants (including two lined pairs) and nine shirts (both short and long-sleeved, one sweater, and a hoodie) for $50

* a quick trip to the used book store to recirculate a bunch of old books and find new ones for the whole family: five novels for me and Ian, five or six books for the kids

* playing a new game Asher invented called “shopping,” in which an old computer keyboard became his cash register, and flat Lego pieces were dollars. He’s pretty great about making change.

* a tad of reading Torpedo Juice, by Tim Dorsey and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I’ve written a couple of times already about the pottery class that Lucas and I took this summer. It was great fun and I’m hoping to do another class, perhaps this fall. It was five evenings during which we both learned something new and got to spend some one-on-one time together.  Our relationship seems to have benefited from having this time away from Asher. Ian and I have resolved to find more such opportunities for Lucas to be with one parent; we’re fervently hoping that this might help improve his somewhat spiky and melancholy moods.

Here is a small selection of our clay creations.

Here is Lucas’s clown. He conceived and executed this all on his own with no help at all. I think it’s adorable.

Detail from my birdie bowl.

Lucas made a small turtle he called Squirtle (à la Pokémon.) His beehive makes me think of Winnie the Pooh.

My frog and my Lucas and Asher hearts.

Lucas carefully glazed this small ball sculpture with a rainbow of colors. (I think of it as a paperweight, but I don’t know if he would agree with that description.) Choosing its glazes took him a long time because he had to find the color from among about a hundred samples, remember its number, and then find the appropriate jar of glaze. The teacher asked us to take no more than two glazes to our workspace at a time, so Lucas had to return to the table with all the glazes repeatedly.

And that little sprite guy is my invention; I had a few extra moments at the end of one class and thought he might look funny hiding in a potted plant or something.

Lastly, we both made thrown pots on the potter’s wheel. Lucas wasn’t too keen on his, so it’s not pictured here. And I made a sign for our doorstep, which you might see sometime.

As I type this, it’s not even 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, and yet the kids are already in the kitchen playing with clay.

A couple of weeks ago on a Friday evening we packed up the lot of us and headed up the hill to Strawberry, where Mimi, Grandpa G’s charming girlfriend, has a lovely cabin. Ian would probably like it to be known it take a long, long time to pack the four of us to go anywhere, especially overnight. Still, the effort was well worth it.

Mimi is such a gracious hostess. She thinks of everything, and her mountain getaway is full of her love expressed in the tiniest of details. Antiques from her childhood summer home, a log cabin in Idaho, decorate her Forest Service cabin in Strawberry. Every object has a story. Every book on the shelf has been carefully selected to sit there, waiting for a curious visitor to page through it. Every dish in the kitchen has it’s special home and origin. Even the jam jar has a tiny silver spoon because if it didn’t, the homemade jam wouldn’t taste as good. It’s really quite astounding that Mimi has poured so much of herself into a place that is used only sometimes.

My boys had a blast digging in the dirt and exploring the woods. It really doesn’t take much to keep small boys happy—some sticks, rocks, or mud is all they really need.

(Lucas invented some kind of esoteric game with small stones. ) Add in some magical running water and it’s heaven on earth.

We spent part of Saturday day at a small lake where the Boy Scouts have a permanent camp. It’s called Cody Lake and it was lovely. We enjoyed listening to all the bells coming from the camp across the lake. A line of boys wearing funny hats hiked past our picnic spot beside the lake.

Lucas naturally dove into Lake Cody and swam, despite the chill. Daddy accompanied the little guy into the water, which was clearly exhilarating!

We dined on delicious food, as is usually the case whenever we’re with Mimi and GG. Organic produce from our CSA came up the hill with us, including some amazing tomatoes.

By far our favorite moments were spent chatting together, exploring Lucas’s “private” island, and splashing in the creek. Maggie the dog was good-natured and always patient, unless you happened to be a squirrel or a chipmunk, in which case all bets were off.

I happily finished the baby blanket I was knitting while on this trip. This year I didn’t need to bring any freelance work with me, so I just relaxed and enjoyed myself. It was so nice to be out of town and in the woods, listening to the breeze sigh through the pines.

There are more photos on my Photos page, so click over if you like wildflowers, woods, creeks, and kids.

I’ll continue our story of our weekend in the Bay Area. This one is shorter, I promise.

We woke on Sunday at Blue and Headra’s new apartment and enjoyed a relaxing morning. We ate some leftover Indian food from the night before; the kids noshed on the cereal and soy milk we brought with us. (We Wilsons always travel with breakfast!) Then we said our goodbyes and fervent thank yous to our gracious hosts and packed into our car to head to our destination: The Oakland Zoo.

Objective: See real, live elephants.
Objective: Visit with Danny, Ian’s ex-step brother, whom we don’t get to see very often.

The Oakland Zoo is really quite lovely. The animals have big, luxurious enclosures, which you might not see so well in my photos. The bigger animals were plains animals like elephants, zebras, and giraffes and their enclosures had a lot of dirt. Other creatures enjoyed trees for swinging in, grass, places to lounge and hide. Those were harder to capture with my Canon; I didn’t have my zoom with me. The whole zoo is hilly and beautifully landscaped, with flowers everywhere.

We rode a ski lift-like sky tram over several animal enclosures, including the lions’ and the tigers’ areas. There’s nothing quite like dangling one’s feet 30 feet over giant carnivores. It was cool to see them from that perspective because there was no fencing or anything to obscure the view. Asher and I rode on a lift together and I nervously kept my arm around him the whole time.

After lunch Asher had a private moment, wandering around. Lucas posed for me on this giant frog. I love that I caught him being candid. This beautiful smile is something of a rarity these days.

Here’s Danny in front of the elephant area. Just when I was getting used to calling him Dan, he told us that he’s changed his mind and actually prefers Danny. OK. No problem! Danny happens to live just a few blocks from this great zoo. Our coming into town gave him a great excuse to hang out with us there for an afternoon.

We saw four elephants. I think there might be others in the herd, but only four were in view. I’d like to think that the animals have a backstage where they can unwind, let their hair down, and … have a beer?

We rounded out the day with a ride on the little zoo train. Asher was thrilled. Lucas couldn’t be bothered to get excited about the ride, which is funny to me because for four solid years nothing was more important to him than trains! Ah well. I guess we all outgrow our childhood obsessions eventually.

And last but not least, here is a great shot of Danny and Ian and Kellie at the Sacramento Zoo circa 1979.

It was a wonderful weekend of friends and fun! I’m so glad we were able to take this trip!

[Second time is a charm? I wrote this post once already a week or so ago, but LJ ate it. I was so bummed I couldn't recreate it until now.]

The weekend of July 24–26, we went to visit our friends, Blue and Headra, in San Raphael. The plan was to pack as much Bay Area fun into one weekend as possible. We were so grateful to have a great place to stay and to spend all of Saturday with them, seeing some superb sights.

We woke early on Saturday to get to the California Academy of Sciences when it opened. The new building is terrific! (There is a great Flickr group if you want to see more pictures.) We did just about everything perfectly, except we didn’t get in to see a planetarium show. But that’s OK because I’m not sure my kids could have sat through it.

The Rainforest exhibit was awesome. We saw lots of butterflies and birds and even some tiny tropical frogs. Patrons walk up a spiraling ramp on the inside of the exhibit sphere. The air is humid and hot. Butterflies flutter around and you gradually ascend through the jungle canopy. Asher found some lantana, which is beloved by butterflies.

The African Hall is very similar to the old Academy, except they’ve added terrariums of live lizards and other reptiles. At one end is a giant tank enclosure full of live African penguins, who are active and funny. It was pretty crowded there, so I didn’t take any good pictures.

 
Lucas was really interested in a lot of things, especially the fish of the Steinhart Aquarium. Blue and Headra were perfectly wonderful, and so helpful with our children. Lucas adores Blue. It was nice having two more pairs of eyes on them in a crowded public place, especially considering that Asher really doesn’t want to ride in the stroller anymore.

While we were waiting briefly to get into the Rainforest sphere, we saw the top of the Reef tank.

 
The giant T-Rex skeleton was pretty great. I thought there would be more dinosaur fossils, but I was wrong. It makes me really want to take the kids to La Brea Tar Pits someday soon. This albino alligator has been there for years! I guess they live a long time.

 
Pharaoh was carried up onto the Living Roof by his bearers. We took some kissy photos up there and surveyed Golden Gate Park. The Living Roof is really beautiful (and it made me want to come home and landscape the roof of my house). It reminded me a lot of the dome where the Teletubbies live.
 
We even cruised through the gift shop and bought a few souvenirs. Just as we were leaving the building for good, having seen everything we came to see, the fire alarm went off and the museum staff announced over the PA that all visitors had to evacuate the Academy. We were SOOOOO relieved not to have to wade through the sea of people trying to exit safely! Instead of that dealing with that nightmare, we walked through Golden Gate Park, enjoyed some beautiful scenery, observed a little of the Hare Krishna Festival of the Chariots, rode the carousel, snacked, and played in the Children’s Park.
 
After that, we meandered over to the De Young Museum to the King Tut exhibit. We had 4:00 p.m. tix and it dovetailed perfectly with our other adventures for the day. Asher was hilarious in the darkened, hushed galleries. Many of the visitors were listening to their audio guides and not talking, but exhuberant Asher spoke at the top of his voice, “There’s King Tut, Daddy! King Tut!” and “That’s a bird! That’s a boat! That’s a cow—MOOOOOOOOO!”

It was really remarkable how well our boys held up during this busy day. They were well behaved and good sports the whole time. We had a tiny tantrum from Asher near the end, when he was tired. But he rallied beautifully when we went to  ’s place to visit and have dinner with her and Andrew and

jaleenafied.
Ian and I had so much fun with our kids and friends. I look forward to more adventures like this as Lucas and Asher grow! It’s so good to feast my eyes on new things, gorgeous places, and kind friends!

Yup. I have a new radiator after my car overheated today for the second time. It was pretty obvious something was busted; there was greenish coolant residue all over the radiator and nearby (unknown-to-me) engine parts. I spent pretty much my whole day dealing with it instead of working. Boo.

The bright side of today is the following:

1. It was car trouble in which nobody got hurt
2. Car is now fine; radiator is replaced
3. I didn’t have to deal with my children while I was dealing with the car trouble, waiting for the tow truck, talking with the mechanic, etc., because others were caring for them; they were safe and having fun with friends
4. I was able to pay cash for the repair; $400
5. I put the tow truck on credit, but will pay it off this month
6. Ian came to get me so I didn’t have to wait at the repair shop all day
7. I got to have lunch with my husband and the food was yummy.

I bucked up my courage the other night and wrote to my uncle, the publisher. His company is small but very well regarded, a leader in the field. I told him I was in the market for DE work—higher level stuff—and attached my résumé and client testimonials. I have worked for his company before as a copyeditor on two fascinating books. I loved the work, but it didn’t pay well. I’m hoping that stepping up in the editing hierarchy will land me better-paying, more rewarding work. And damn-good experience.

It’s time to ask more directly for what I want. Perhaps asking my uncle is a trifle chicken, but everyone uses their connections in life, right? I have the credentials and the talent and the moxie.

He replied immediately, which was very gratifying. He has never before replied immediately when I sent strictly personal emails.

“…we’re just starting to transmit Spring ’10 projects, and so I’m very glad you wrote.  With all your editorial experience and your classics background (remember that?), I think you could be just the right person for some of those projects.  I’ll pass along your materials to our managing editor and figure out which of the upcoming projects might work. ”

I love the idea of getting projects on the books for 2010.

Thank you for the lovely comments you made on my Love Story post yesterday.

Thanks for all the love and support, everyone. The truth is, our community of friends and family has been instrumental in helping us through the difficult times in our marriage, and has been a source of constant joy and celebration during the happy times. I could have taken another 5 to 10 hours to write about all the ways that you dear people have affected our lives, and all the places where you intersect our story, but that would have been a much too long post. We weave our stories together on purpose.