How my son spent his Sunday morning.

Paper, cardboard, string, and cello tape sculpture of a horse and wagon by 7-year-old Lucas.

I’ve been soooooooo busy with work! A textbook that I’ve been working on for a long, long time is now it the final stages. I’m reviewing page proofs now and the schedule is very aggressive. I’ll be burning the midnight oil up to November 23. Trouble is, I’m tired. The last full day off I had was October 4. I’m just not as good at working late into the night as I used to be. Hello, 37.

It’s OK, though, because I have a vacation coming. We’ll be going to Capitola over Thanksgiving and I’m working really hard now in the hopes that I won’t have to take any work along with me. Working this hard now will turn out to be an investment in my sanity later. This is the plan, anyway.

A new Big Project is starting up for a Big Publisher and it’s one I’ll be working on through May of 2010. I have yet to figure out what I’ll be doing exactly, but I’m glad to have it. I’ll be working on the creation of a web-based product instead of a book. I’m excited to have the opportunity to expand my skills!

I recently finished a computer book edit, which was a great book and a good project, except for the lesson it taught me about Time vs. Fee. I choose to feel grateful for the learning opportunity.

On deck for today is this motto: “Work like crazy!” I am hoping someday soon the day’s motto will be “Play like crazy!”

I wish I’d managed to write this days ago, but my work has got me hopping like crazy!

Halloween was perfect this year. It felt like such a treat to have it on a Saturday night because we could really enjoy ourselves.

Friday night before Halloween we enjoyed a great meal of pork chops, sweet potatoes, and greens and then carved our jack-o’-lantern. Parnasus and her son X joined us for the carving fun, and I finally hung up the groovy felt decorations we made the day before. This year Lucas managed to carve his own pumpkin, and made a graveyard scene showing headstones and a creepy hand coming up from a grave (What?).  Asher’s jack-o’-lantern was perfectly smiley, just as he requested.

We spent about five hours on Saturday figuring out our costumes. Lucas knew he wanted to be Christopher Robin from the A. A. Milne books. How impossibly cute is that? It was an easy costume to create. We added long socks and some suspenders made of ribbon and dug out my old Winnie the Pooh doll my childhood. I knew there was a good reason to save it all these years!

Thanks to Eden’s suggestion, Ian and decided on Peter Pan and Wendy costumes. I used to have the perfect white nightie, but I turned my wardrobe upside-down and didn’t find it. Fortunately, I had a white summer dress that I combined with a white blouse to make a nightgown. A pretty blue bow in my hair was about all I needed to complete the look. Ian easily transformed some cheap, green shorts and a green shirt from Target into a Peter Pan outfit with some judicious dagging. You might say we were a pretty literary bunch this year.

Grandma and Tolly Dog, who had been away for a month in Tahoe, came home to come out trick-or-treating with us. Ian’s sister Kellie and her boyfriend Matt came along, too. Kellie took this terrific photo of all four of us.

Unfortunately, despite many attempts at finding a costume that Asher would tolerate, we failed. We offered him all kinds of options, which he would agree with at first, but then refused to actually put on. He had talked about being Thomas the Tank Engine and a “big dragon with big teeth,” but in the end, all we could get him to wear was a “super-guy” cape.

Most of the evening, Asher wouldn’t go up to the houses, but stayed back with his family. Those who answered Lucas’s doorbell ring usually sent a piece of candy out to Asher with Lucas or me. Asher finally got up the courage to approach this house and did it properly. He seemed pretty proud of himself after that.

The trick-or-treating was a great success and my kids brought home way too much candy. We went out pretty early in the evening so we could get to the Pumpkin Path at Sacramento Waldorf School at 7 p.m.

The Pumpkin Path was wonderful as always! The children (and their parents) were guided by their Angel Guide along a windy path through the school that was  lighted by jacks and luminairies. They saw skits of toymakers, magic scarecrows, a fable about the lion and the mouse, the race of the hare and the tortoise, singing fairies in the glen, a contest of strength between the sun and the wind, and more. At each station the kids were given a trinket, toy, or edible treat. The best part about the Pumpkin Path this year was the way Lucas guided his little brother, helping him over tree roots in the ground or up and down steps, staying by Asher’s side so he wouldn’t be scared in the night. It was so heartwarming to see Lucas take care of Asher in this way. And Asher gleefully trooped along after Lucas. Last year, we carried Asher through it. This year, he went on his own.

We rounded out the evening with a party at our friends’ house. It was a perfect Halloween!

On November 1, Lucas just turned 7 and a half. I’m finding I’m feeling more relaxed around him now than I was six months ago, which I think is because the sharp edges of his emotional states seem to have gradually rounded off. He is still more “feeling” at times that I’m comfortable with, but he’s not lashing out in huge outbursts indiscriminately anymore. Many emotions are easy to deal with, but some are hard and have a big impact on those around him. This is a huge relief.

Now, we are seeing a Lucas who is more confident, more comfortable, and more engaged. He likes being in school and having all those friends around him. He likes learning new things and his mind is an amazing sponge. His reading is coming along, and we find we can no longer spell words we would rather he not hear because he can often decode them!

We have been treated this fall to some wonderful tales about saints, and Lucas has been working really hard in his Math main lesson block. I’m told that the children are earning their golden Math Crowns by counting, and then they earn jewels to go on their crowns when they successfully recite their times tables.  Lucas has earned four jewels for his crown by reciting his twos, threes, fives, and tens. This is awesome to me. Today we had a lovely discussion of division and prime numbers, although he didn’t call them that. “You know, Mom, 3 cannot be divided, but 4 can. Divide 4 and you get 2 and 2. 5 can’t be evenly divided. You would get 3 on one side and 2 on the other.” He proceeded to break down every number up to 15, determining whether each could be evenly divided.

Tonight Lucas recited his birthday verse to us for the first time. As is customary in Waldorf schools, his teacher created a verse for each child in the class, who practices it and recites it in front of the other children. The verse is meant to speak about the child, but also to the child to encourage and nurture in the child a quality or talent.

This is the verse she created for Lucas. I wept happy tears when I heard it.

Let us make a thing of beauty

That hungry souls may feast upon.

Let us make a thing of beauty

That long may live when we are gone.

Whether it be wood or marble,

Poetry, music, or art,

Let us make a thing of beauty

To help set man apart.

He proudly told me that his verse is the only one that mentions beauty.

2008, Photo by Kellie

2007

2007

2005, Photo by Elisa

2004 (Lucas was Thomas again in 2005)

2003

My 7-year-old really wanted to decorate for the holiday. So, although I’ve never been one for fake spiderwebs and seasonal flags and Mylar balloons, I made some concessions this year.

First, we put those fake spiderwebs all over our home’s entry.

Then we got to crafting. I bought about 15 small pieces of felt (25¢ each) at the craft store yesterday, white and black puffy fabric paint, some tacky glue, and a bag of googly eyes.  The boys and I sat at the kitchen table today for about an hour and a half cutting shapes out of felt and gluing them together. It was really fun! Asher had a hard time working the scissors, but liked the part with the glue!

Lucas made a ghost, skull, vampire bat, orange goblin, and Dracula. I made a bat, three jack-o’-lanterns, haunted house and a witch. Ian came home from work  in time to join us, and he made the light orange ghoulie in the middle. I wish I had a good picture of the piece of yellow felt that Asher completely covered with googly eyes! But such things are fleeting with a 2-year-old around. All the googly eyes ended up on the kitchen floor.

When they are dry, I’ll thread them and hang them.

Much better than any preprinted cardboard decorations from the dollar store, I think!

I bought Lucas an orange, hooded sweatshirt about a week or so ago, after a friend turned me on to Campmor. I spent an hour last night and less than 50¢ worth of felt and embroidery thread turning it into a fun Halloween outfit. He wore it to school today. I think he loves it. I like the way it has missing teeth just like Lucas does.

It feels like forever since I wrote. It’s been such a busy time for me—lots of projects all stacked up on each other, but I think I’m through the worst (best?) of it now. I’m feeling accomplished in this area of my life, but neglectful in others.

My boys have been sick and so everyone is moving slow. Lucas is now better finally and back to school. Ian and Asher are still ill and spending the days playing Legos, watching movies, reading books, building block towers, moving huge piles of toys and things from one end of the house to another, and other low-key things. Ian can work from home a little when he feels up to it.

Although I’m sorry he isn’t feeling well, Ian’s being home the last few days has allowed me to keep my work moving forward and hit my deadlines. This is a huge relief.

On the mothering side, I feel I’m falling down on the job. I mean, nobody’s dying from neglect. Everyone’s adequately nourished and safe. But I usually like to pay a little more attention to my children. It’s five days until Halloween and we don’t even have costumes in the works. No decorations have been hung. The two pumpkins grandma grew in her garden are sitting in the backyard, instead of gracing our front porch. I bought our Pumpkin Path tickets for Saturday night, but that’s about it. Lucas would dearly love to spookify our house and I just haven’t had the time.

We missed the Sacramento Waldorf School’s Harvest Faire on Saturday, which was a real shame because it’s always such fun. But nobody in our family except me was in good enough shape to go out and have fun. At least I got my Children’s Store donations in (nine needle-felted mice, some small, blank journals, and 25 sets of three note cards featuring fairies, mushrooms, flowers, and cute garden snails). I hope to do more next year. (We did more last year!)

I’m looking forward to Asher being well again. I’m always on edge when he is coughing and congested at night. He makes the most horrible choking sounds!

OK, that was fun. Now I must get back to work!

Words. Words. Words. I’m up to my eyeballs in words: editing, writing, note-taking, developing. New projects are on the horizon. Current projects are clamoring for attention, competing with each other to get a piece of me.

It’s late and I’m so very tired. It was a wordy day, so I’ll share only a photograph.

My mother's handmade socks for Asher and Lucas.

Apart from reading more than a hundred books, vacationing on the East Coast, prepping for her fall semester Humanities classes at American River College, sewing with me, and who knows what else, my mom knitted my kids nineteen pairs of socks! Nineteen!

She knows how much Asher loves to play in the clean laundry, so she saved them all up until last night, when she gently dumped them on Asher’s head to watch him squeal with glee and roll around in them. He played in the socks for about 20 minutes, throwing them around, playing fetch (as a puppy dog), and wrestling in them.

Isn’t her work beautiful? She is so talented in so many areas. I hope that I can learn to do this someday. She uses four tiny needles to knit socks.

She told me she used up a bunch of yarn from her stash. Some socks are made from several different yarns, which gives them a playful, unique character. Perfect for my playful boys.

I took these photos this morning. The sock game was just as fun as it was last night!