I meant to post this weeks ago but it slipped my mind. Lucas made all these cutie pies with modeling clay. Modeling clay is really fun when you’re stuck indoors!
I forget what the critter at the back right is, but the others are a turtle and a bluebird. In the front are a swan, a dolphin, a duck, and a penguin. But you knew that.
This is one of those posts in which I tell the ugly truth.
My children have been sick this week. Lucas came down with a cold when he was sleeping over at Grandma and Papa’s house last Saturday night. He came home on Sunday feeling pretty bad and stayed home from school Monday through Wednesday. Yesterday he was clearly feeling better and really bored with being home; I know this because he kept getting into trouble. He actually swung from the curtain and ripped the rod and fitting right out of the wall. Another time I caught him climbing the wire dresser drawers in his closet and throwing toys stacked on the high closet shelf down to the floor. This makes for a frustrating time for both of us.
Understandably, this morning Lucas begged to be allowed to go back to school, so we packed him off for the day — and good riddance! Alas, by 10 a.m. he was done, feeling sick and tired again, and asking to come home. Later today, though, he told me that he blames me — I am so selfish I won’t let him go back to school. He decided that Ms. Duncan (his teacher) would be his mommy from now on. He doesn’t want me anymore. Honestly, why did I ever teach him to talk?
Asher came down with the same cold on Tuesday, so I figure that’s a whole week of work time shot. He won’t nap today with his brother home and being crazy. Consequently, Asher isn’t exactly in the best of moods for lack of a proper rest and being sick.
I’m just not able to be very productive with my editing when they’re home sick. Be patient, please, my books! I hope to get back to you soon. I may have to escape this weekend and work elsewhere to catch up if Asher is still ill, or if Ian comes down with the cold, too. (We share everything around here, especially germs!)
A few good things have happened this week, though:
* I was able to finish my donations to the school fundraiser auction yesterday (see yesterday’s post). I’m happy with how they turned out.
* I bought a client gift that I’ve been meaning to buy for several months now. Deciding on the perfect thing was tough, but I think I’ve got it now. I sent her Andy Goldsworthy’s first book of his land art. We’ll see if she likes it.
* I signed Lucas up for some fun morning-long camp days at Effie Yeaw Nature Center during spring break. I’ve also advertised this fact to some of his best buddies’ parents in the hopes that they will sign their kids up, too. One program is about woodpeckers and the other is about worms and bugs. He loves those day camps. Too bad their budget is so limited this year. Last year they had camp every morning for a week; this year it’s only two days.
* I bought some stuff for the next couple of holidays (St. Patrick’s Day and Easter). I’m planning a few projects to do with the kiddos, which will be fun I think. I’m trying to be better about planning ahead this year.
See how I’m counting my blessings? They say that’s the trick.
Geez. Sometimes I just feel like I’m not so good at this parenting job. I’m really struggling today. I wonder why I don’t have as much patience as I want to have, why I can’t be more “here now,” as they say. I wish I could somehow be 100% fulfilled by wiping noses and catering meals. I wish I could shake this desperate feeling. If I could, I think I might be happier.
Never mind.
The day started with blueberry smoothies
and Lego construction of video game hardware
Like Wii and DS
That’s all he needs, really—little Lego devices on which he can pin his imaginary games
The boys left to play at our friends’ house and indulge in a little real Wii Sports
Then for me, some light reading: a fundamentals of nursing textbook
I was lured outside for some photography
Gotta catch these plum blossoms before they’re gone
See the little star?
An unexpected visit from Mom and a cup of coffee
More nursing reading on topics of theories of caring, cultural sensitivity, and the ADPIE nursing process
I jogged through the sunshiny neighborhood to pick up the kids from their play date—oh boy, am I out of shape!
Walking/running home with one son in fast, new white trainers and the other wearing the jumpiest pair of firefighter galoshes you’ve ever seen
Second lunch of meat for Baby Asher Dragon
Lunch of leftover vegetable soup for me
A little planting of primroses, which will probably do fine where we put them until it gets too warm
Finding a worm
Watering plants lead to spraying children who cavorted with great glee and got soaking wet
In February!
High of 65° F
Ahhh!
We met a garden foefriend
Who couldn’t find his way off this plate
Dry clothes for everyone
Then a cuddle and some stories; the children are into playing Monkey and Dragon these days, so we read books with, what else?
Monkeys and dragons
Hug (Thanks, Auntie NoNo and Uncle Mars!)
and—what the hay—a Japanese fairy tale called “Kuzma and the Fox”
Sweet afternoon slumber for the wee one
Lucas and I headed back outdoors for some Winter Olympic Games
Like speed skating, long track
Figure skating
and ice hockey
On the lawn with bare feet!
More work reading
A few moments of “DragonFly TV” and “Fetch with Ruff Ruffman” on PBS Kids for Lucas
Asher wandered out, crawled into my lap and slept on
So sweet
Cuddling sleeping boys is just about the best thing in the world (unless you have to pee)
“Wake up, Asher, or you’ll never sleep tonight!”
A shower for me
Pretend video games for Lucas
Daddy’s home!
Lucas reading Jamberry to Asher!
Just a tad of stream-of-consciousness blogging
Sounds of some kind of Dragon and Monkey game with lots of sound effects and shouting
Soon, dinner and bedtime
Then project prep
More work reading, like the Roy Adaptation Model
G’night
Sleep tight.
It’s teacher in-service week around here, which means my kids have the week off school and daycare. I’m getting help from grandma and some friends here and there, which is great because I have a big meeting to prepare for. Next week I’m flying to New Jersey for two days of meetings. I’m excited and nervous. It’s my longest trip away from my kids ever—three days!
The weather has turned so exquisitely springlike it’s making me feel a little drunk. Crocuses and daffodils are blooming. The quinces in the neighborhood are bursting out coral blossoms. Today I noticed my flowering plum tree has its first blossoms. Hallelujah! I know more rainy, cold weather is ahead. It’s OK. I’m just glorying in our false spring and enjoying the moment. The sun on my face feels spectacular. Yesterday we enjoyed some late afternoon time at our local schoolyard.
Today, Lucas and I left the house in short-sleeved T-shirts. Out of habit and a belief that Asher still doesn’t regulate his own temperature all that well, I made him wear two long-sleeve shirts. At about 1:30 this afternoon he turned to me and stammered something I couldn’t make out. Then he gathered his thoughts and said, quite clearly, “I’m so sweaty!” Oh! Sorry kid. Let’s take off a shirt.
The boys and I visited Great Grandmother RoRo and Great Grandaunt Nana today. It was good to see them, but also strange. My children don’t relate well to Ro at all, which makes me sad because she was such fun when I was a child. These sweet ladies look pretty well and we sat outside in the sunshine together and watched the boys play.
Later at home I gave the kids haircuts. Asher really hates this procedure. He cries and says I’m hurting him, and freaks out whenever the shorn hairs touch his skin. To get him to stay in the chair so I could do the job, I had to give him a Valentine chocolate cut into four pieces. It took a lot of patience on both our parts, but we ended up with an OK cut.
This is one of Lucas’s shots from yesterday evening. I like the color.
Life is good. We are fine. Hope you are too!
Lucas has been enjoying playing with Fuse Beads lately. You arrange them standing on end in patterns and then fuse them together with a clothes iron.
Lucas quickly tired of following the suggested patterns and created a whole army of little guys. They each have a name, though I can’t tell you what the names are; I could not pronounce them even if I remembered them.
Here are a few familiar characters: a fused R2D2 and a Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader ready to fuse. I’d better get on that!
For this one, he used the fuse beads in a different way. Waldorf kids are cool.
Grandma visited today with Valentine’s presents for the boys. When they saw these lollipops, their eyes became wide as (heart-shaped) saucers! We love you, VoVo!
Isn’t life amazing? Yesterday I held a kind of vigil for some loved ones, quietly and patiently waiting for news about health issues. My two candles burned all the time I was home and until I closed my eyes to sleep. It’s good work—holding people in your heart all day, breathing small prayers past your lips and into your everyday actions. Wash a dish, say a prayer. Take a walk, say a prayer. Fold the laundry, say a prayer.
Today, we’re still waiting for important news from one loved one. So the vigil continues.
Ian and the boys are robust, lovely, and soldiering on. We have daily conflicts and challenges, things to learn, and things to work on. And yet we march forward each day to face them, process them, learn from them, and to make the world a better place through sharing our love. And we are happy.
The world keeps turning. Projects end, begin, and continue. Homework comes due (yikes!). Dinners are cooked. Metaphorical and imaginary fires (especially if you’re Baby Asher Firefighter) must be put out. What is needed? How can we help? We pick up our tools and go to work.
Some of us fake it until we can make it. Some play-act through our fear and confusion. “You need surgery, Mom. Go to sleep. I have to cut you open and take out this lump. Oh no! Here is another one. Better get that one, too, before it spreads. OK. Now you’ll be all better. Does it hurt? Here is some medicine. I’ve saved you!” Processing … My heart seems to break a little more every day … for all the good and all the bad in life.
And speaking of hearts, celebrations for Valentine’s Day are in the works. I get to make and then serve a Valentine’s snack for 27 hungry children on Friday (mmm … strawberry muffins with honey-sweetened cream-cheese topping). Tokens of friendship and love are being made by small hands everywhere. Can you hear the click of their pens, the slicing of their safety scissors in paper, the sprinkling of glitter over white glue? I can. I can hear the painstaking scratching of No. 2 pencils signing names 26 times.
We humans are a study in the paradox of steadfastness and flexibility. We turn to one another—some offering, some asking for help. We carry fears and frustrations, crippling pains, loves, and our joie de vivre through all the buffeting storms.
Isn’t life amazing? Isn’t it grand?
Edit: The news we were waiting for is Happy News!
It was a great weekend! Ian and I got to go to see Eddie Izzard play Oakland’s Oracle Arena with some friends. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a bigger venue for anything. We had nosebleed seats way up top, but it didn’t much matter. We so enjoyed him. Anybody who does Latin jokes is my hands-down favorite. I took a pic with my cell phone, but I don’t know how to get the picture to my computer…
Yesterday we moved Lucas’s bed into Asher’s room. Well, Lucas and Ian moved the bed. I performed support tasks and kept Asher out of the way. It’s quite an adventure taking Ikea furniture apart and putting it back together again. Good think my hubby’s so handy! Both of the boys seem very excited about this new arrangement. Last night at bedtime there was a kind of slumber-party feeling in the air. I expect it will take some getting used to, but I think they will adapt nicely. Asher’s bed is now beneath Lucas’s bed, which gives Asher a kind of cubbyhole to sleep in. I think he will come to really like that, at least for a time. We’ll leave things like this awhile and eventually move my office into Lucas’s old bedroom. I feel a little guilty taking his room from him—it’s been his since his birth. But the new arrangement will give my office a door (a blessed, beautiful door!) that I can close to keep out family noise while I’m working. I look at it as a short- to medium-term investment in my sanity and my business, and possibly in my kids’ relationship. Perhaps sharing a room will promote brotherly closeness. Or perhaps that’s my wishful thinking.
I got to share a meal with some girlfriends last night and I’m more determined than ever to make that a more regular occurrence. I just need to get out more and my kids can now handle it better.
We’re getting ready for Asher’s birthday party next weekend. I’m excited!
It’s still raining. Everything’s gray and cold. I have no issue with rain per se, but my idea of rain is warmer and more … romantic … than the rain presently falling from the sky. Looking out my windows, I see my yard is dreary. My favorite plants are shorn or dormant. The lawn is full of yellow dead patches. Only the redwood trees look nice, and my, they’ve grown tall! I am looking forward to some sunny days to lift my spirits.
Asher and I were alone this afternoon and we just had to get out of the house for awhile. There’s a great “creek” running down our street so we took a boat outside to float it. Asher didn’t want to be bothered to try out the yellow rain boots for splashing in puddles. He just went for it! Also, the boat wasn’t nearly as interesting as the runoff. Just look at the glee on his face!
This splashing was a great distraction for me, too. I knew Ian was driving home from Fresno in the rain and I worry only because I know he doesn’t much like driving in the rain. I was anxious for him to be home safe and sound.
And now he is and I’m grateful.
It’s been a long day and I’m ready to call it. Lucas is abed; Asher will be soon. Good night. I hope you occasionally enjoy a good splash, too.
It’s 10:30 a.m. on a holiday. My boys are all home and presently engaged in drawing backdrops for the Lego movie they plan on making today. I have no idea how they will accomplish this, given that we have an old-fashioned camcorder and not a fancy digital camera, nor any editing software. Perhaps I’m overthinking it. I’m hearing phrases about aliens and space police and stop-motion. Asher is helping, so it will be interesting to watch with one eye how this project unfolds (and potentially is destroyed by Baby Godzilla) .
I’m sitting here in my office in my living room trying to work and not pay too much attention to everyone. I’m trying to edit a strategy guide for a ubiquitous game franchise and it feels for all the world like I’ve read these exact words a hundred million times before. (OK. Maybe I’m not trying all that hard if I’ve stopped to write this post.)
Rain is falling outside and my throat’s a little sore, but I know there’s no point in going back to bed to rest more.
I’ve signed up for a class on developmental editing for fiction—I’m interested in learning how other people tackle this sort of thing, especially since I work in a vacuum most of the time. I’m hopeful that I’ll learn a bunch that will help me land more such projects. So I’m looking forward to the class and also hoping that it won’t take too much time away from my projects.
I’m starting a new project tomorrow and I’ll be working directly with the author. I expect another big nursing copyedit to come my way, but this one won’t be a whole book. I’ll be editing test questions and I expect that to take about two months, starting any day now.
My meeting with my uncle, who is the editor in chief for a religious publisher, was very productive. I get to look at his fall list and choose some books that sound interesting to me. I don’t know if I’ll really get my pick(s), but it sounds like a strong possibility. His books are very clever, scholarly, and carry some cachet, and the prospect of working on something challenging sounds good.
So, at the moment, I’m feeling pretty great about where I am in the world. Some interesting new things are on my horizon! Oh! And I bought a fabulous new coat yesterday.
