I forgot to write things down this week. So everything is a little sketchy. I do recall at least 3 incidents of biting. And the huge bruise on Sweet Boy#3′s shoulder backs up this memory. There was some sand thrown in eyes, sunscreen in eyes, and some crazed waving of sticks. Oh…I tried to block it out but now I recall that Sweet Boy#3 hit the neighbor girl in the face with the hose attachment and made her cry. And Sweet Boy#1 and Sweet Boy#2 were caught under the dinning room table pigging out of their little brother’s potty treats. We did attempt to potty train this week and had 4 successful potty stops, which deteriorated into more accidents than I could count and the decision to try again after his 3rd birthday. A good but busy week in the life of Kristen the Mom.
Reading Tai-Bo
I finished Star Dustby Niel Gaiman. I loved it, absolutely loved it. In the movie the ending consisted of this insane showdown between the hero, and the star, and a flock of rabid witches. In the book the ending is simply beautiful. Lovely and simple without bloodshed or wands. But The Count of Monte Cristo remains unread. Why…I swear it is not my fault. My lovely sister calls me 3 times saying: “Drop everything and read this book I’m sending you!!!” And so of course I do. And I don’t need anything close to 14 days to read it. This week I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I absolutely loved this book! A cross between the roman gladiators and a futuristic end of the world scenario and a coming of age love story. So good, and now she’s sent me the second one!!! Let the games begin.
Breaking News
Some things are bittersweet. Like getting to see all of your favorite cousins at a funeral, sending your firstborn to school, and the last day of summer camp. The last day of summer camp has come and gone and its passing always sends an ache clean to my bones. And yet we would never survive the intensity of summer camp all year round.
The Hunky Hubby and I can’t get away for a date during June, July, or August. The tension yanks at the bindings of your heart as you give all that is within you and then drop to your knees and beg for more. And sometimes the counselors steal your shoes and toss them onto the roof of the lodge.
But it is so sad to see it go. One is truly alive during camp. Serving with an undivided spirit, living as you were created to live, pouring yourselves out as a drink offering for others. It is truly glorious. Draining, but glorious. And now it has come to an end. Fall approaches with its buses and lessons. I will finally get to see my husband, maybe even go on a date. And strangely it is difficult not to get a little blue and weepy for we have given so much, and so much has been given in return. Bitter, beautiful, and terribly sweet.
The Week in Haiku
Monday
Grasshoppers clicking
Away from Grammy and boys
Hands snatching for bugs
Tuesday
Tummy in the sand
Digging volcanoes and moats
Sandy skin, bright eyes
Wednesday
Ants, grass, flying planes
Hamburgers in the meadow
beattle in my tea
Thursday
Three boys on the bus
Astronomy with Splinter
Bounce up and away
Friday
Pencils and gluesticks
New jeans, lunch, dinosaur shirt
School starts in August
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Writing News
This week I worked a little bit on my devotional idea, interiewed one of our counselors about a recent trip to Mexico (she brought me back a coke can full of dirt!), and read some good books. I’ m eager to get my critiques back and get back to work on my story. But for the moment, the devotional will have to do. And the reading, apparently you even learn stuff while reading. Yeah books!
Boy Quotes
Sweet Boy#2–”That moth sleeps so quiet I never heard him snore.”
Sweet Boy#2 puts eight band-aids on one owie which strangely makes the wound even worse.
I tuck Sweet Boy#2 into bed and he actually wants to pray. Yeah! I think.
Sweet Boy#2–”God, please give this moth 3 more legs!”
Sweet Boy#1–”You mean 5, 5 more legs.”
Sweet Boy#2–”I mean 5.”
The Harrowing/Heartwarming Parent Moment of the Week
Sweet Boy#2–Hops out of the tub and puts on a pair of his brother’s dirty underwear…and doesn’t understand why we have a problem with this.
Sweet Boy#2–Opened and smeared a packet of soy sauce all over his bedroom windowsill.
Sweet Boy#2–Asks me to play the new Switchfoot album for bedtime music. The crazy thing…I do it for him and he goes to sleep. He calls this CD “The music that your campers like”.
Sweet Boy#3–Dumps a whole cup of water onto a basket full of 4 sleeping kittens.
But the winner this week
Sweet Boy#3–I walked into the bathroom and caught him fishing. How you might ask? Well he had found the bran new wii controller that The Hunky Hubby had recently purchased and was holding the little wrist band in order to carefully dip the controller into the toilet bowl! This did not go over well at all with the Hunky Hubby.
Reading Tai-Bo
This week when inside on the safe softness of our sofa, I am reading The Count of Monte Cristo by some old dead famous guy. And when outside playing at the gravel pile or sports court or hammocks with the boys I am reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman (which I discovered is not… cough cough…written for children. Just to warn you). Oh, and I read just a little bit from Body of Work by Christine Montross which is written by a Doctor about all the things she learned while dissecting her very first human corpse in medical school. Interesting but not as helpful as I had hoped. I think I’ll send it back. What did I learn from reading this week? The value of creating reader sympathy for both your hero and your villain. In The Count of Monte Cristo both the hero and the magistrate who sends him to prison are at their betrothal parties when all heck breaks loose. You feel deeply the pressures and passions that drive both men and you are inexplicably rooting for each of them. So amazing, I’m loving this book, even though there is no way I’m finishing over a thousand pages in the 14 days that I have it on loan from my sister. She loaned it from her nook so I know that it will simply disappear when the time is up…Ahhhhhh!
Breaking News
The boys and I packed up for three days and visited Phylis’s house on the west side or “in the rain forest” as Sweet Boy#1 likes to say. We had such a marvelous time, they behave so much better when there are more eyes on them. We went to a zero tide and looked at clams and crabs and seaweed and anemones and all manner of dead things in the sand. We went to “The Rain forest Cafe” and had awesome food by the gorillas and the boys all got to take home flashy cups that would be the bane of anyone with epilepsy. Fortunately none of us are so afflicted and so can enjoy the flash flash flash flash flash of these cups four hours and hours. We rode an escalator and went to the park and hunted up eggs and fed baby chicks and made forts for kittens. Then when my wolf pack finally settled down to sleep, Phyllis and Ashly and I ate Tillamuck ice cream and watched old Sherlock Holmes movies. So fun! Just writing this post makes me want to pack up and go back. But the hunky hubby has accidentally taken a vital piece of Sweet Boy#3′s car seat with him this weekend and so we are going no where. Ah well, such is life.
The Week in Haiku
Monday
Salty sandy stomp
Vast treasures neath ocean waves
Exposed so briefly
Tuesday
Eating with monkeys
Jungle sounds and lightning drinks
A tropical lunch
Wednesday
Chicks, fluffy and fast
Climb into Momma’s feathers
So strange and darling
Thursday
Kittens in a pile
Orange like October candy
But tumbling and sharp
Friday
Hammocks swing and flip
Raging storm with spider clouds
Afternoon at sea
To see my lovely sister’s haiku, please click here.
