July

Jackson had the best birthday ever. Meeting up with tons of friends at the playground, we provided snack foods which required no plates or silverware ( twizzlers, cheese sticks, decorate-your-own-cupcake station with icing and sprinkle choices, fruit and granola bars).
We also made up a TON of yo-yo balloons- a big hit for all ages and we hid treasure stones amoung the trees and kids had to hunt for them. I made them all the day before so I just put silly bands inside and baked them at 200 degrees for maybe 20-40 min depending on how hard they felt, when the stones feel hard I take them out.
Jackson had a fantastic time and we all went to see Despicable Me the next day, a water park the day after that and yet ANOTHER water park the following day. It's been quite the fun week. Happy 8 years old!

extra ordinary

So, the thing with Jackson is that he's different. There are words like immature, Asperger's, objective-defiant disorder, genius, gifted and boy that all seem to fit him at times. Basically, I'm not interested in labels and diagnosis. I just want to deal with Jackson as the person that he is.
Today he taught Sloane to knit. Watching the show Charlie and Lola is like being with Jackson and Sloane. The other day he decided to make a list of mammals, which brings up questions like "Do Octopuses hear?" he filled three + pages.
He sometimes gets REALLY REALLY ANGRY over very minor disturbances to his things. He doesn't have control over a lot, as he's 7 and he's in a family that has to work with 5 other people and their schedules/likes/dislikes/attitudes.
He's amazingly kind and responsible and shockingly immature at times. Yesterday at the park a mom came up to me and asked "Is that older boy your son?" She wanted to tell me how kind and thoughtfully he included her younger son in a game he was playing with another kid. Today his zoology teacher told me he was incredibly smart and made great contributions to the class. This is a slice of the one and only Jackson.

Sloane's world

Sloane is 4 and a half years old. She's darling and wonderful and frequently writes me letters which say "To the best Mommy and Daddy in the world who are the best we could ever even know about having such a good mommy and daddy and I love you so much even so much more than the biggest house and even more than a tree and I think you are very, very, very great."
She draws these intricate drawings that contain lots of little parts and careful pieces all over. They are machines that can bring us pancakes and houses and people. There are letters scattered through the drawings S, L, A, B, E, N, M, W and she doesn't put them together to make her name but sometimes writes a string of letters to ask what it says.
Sloane is very mothering, always looks out for Cort.
Apricots are her favorite food and she'll eat fruit all day long if I let her.
The other day Sloane learned to pump all by herself on the swing. Jackson taught her by tying a jump rope to her swing and pulling it to swing her until she got the motion on her own. As she pumped herself up high she sang out "Jackson is my HERO."
She has been following him around and answers all his requests with "Yes, your majesty" for two weeks since.

How I spent my summer vacation

Today we cut up old t-shirts to make spy masks a la Teenage Mutant Ninja Solleys.

opps, I did it again!

Crazy in other ways too

Today
Bill is running a 50 mile race. I have not been supportive of this in any way...but he's doing it anyway just because he can't do anything on a normal level...running 26 miles is not enough, he does that every other week, running 30 miles is not enough...we have to be all extreme so he's going for 50 miles today and I am getting ice for his 'ice bath' later and we are making a sign for him to smile at as he crosses the finish line today in the 95 degree heat.


Jackson got heelys at the thrift store the other day for $4. He could hardly walk out of the store wearing them for the first time because they are heavy and akward with wheels on the back heels. Then he fell over and over and worked at it for HOURS as he slowly and steadily got very good. Now he can do all sorts of tricks. He totally has Bill's determination and gets fixated on things: knitting, reading every book in the Wizard of Oz series, heelys, legos.
As I was taking these wheely photos I noticed the background of my messy kitchen. Piles of papers and dirty dishes...and an iron (it came with the apartment) and a towel because my coutnertop is my ironing board and because sometimes I do little projects.

Today I ignored the dishes, made my bed, got dressed, schlepped the kids to the thrift store (yes...again!) because I wanted to reconstruct an old man's work shirt into a cutesy girl shirt. This seems to be the style Billie has mostly adopted; at the moment she has these half-finished projects in SIGHT of where I sit right now, newspaper basketweaving, a theater ticket stub scrapbook, 2 crochet projects, her own poster for Dad because she didn't want the other kids messing up her drawings, and one construction paper 'tape player' she's planning to use as a prop in our next play. I won't list the arty things I'm working on at the moment but I may have more going than she does and if you were to calculate a rate I probably finish about 45% of the things I start. Bill does everything he puts he puts his mind to. If only I could get him to commit to putting his socks in the laundry bin and he could rely on me to actually get to the grocery store...

when the bees sting

I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad:

Washing my face with plain ol' buy at the grocery store SEA salt.

My new trim treads that I wear around the house and feel sore the next day so it's like a version of doing nothing to exercise that actually works....maybe. I have only had them for a week but my calves are killing me!!

The perfectly funny book about momhood called When Did I Get Like This, which is how I feel my blog would be like if I wrote a book and had lots of different experiences.

Thinking about getting dreadlocks again...

Being more green: You probably already know that I don't buy paper-towels, haven't for about 8 years and I always use paper napkins. I've also given up dryer sheets and I am happy to report that I haven't purchased ANY household cleaning products for 2 years. I keep a cutesy spray bottle of vinegar water in each bathroom and use that for all sorts of spills: carpet stains, pee on the floor, juice puddles left in the bathtub, strawberry jam stuck on the couch pillow and found months later, boogers stuck to the wall...you know, all the stuff around the house. For the bathrooms & kitchen I use microfiber cloths.
Recently I gave up wipes, you know like, those little disposable diaper wipes people use on their kids all the time. I bought a set of these cuties and I keep a couple in the car, a few in my purse, they are great for runny noses and I always have water on hand so I can wet them and use them if I have a sticky popsicle to clean up after. I'm never buying wasteful wipes again- this pack of 20 will wash and wear through the next 10 years.
For eco-friendly lunch packaging I bought some silicone cupcake holders for our bento box snacks- zip lock baggies are OUT!
While I'm at it with the linky-love I must say that we've put these popsicle molds to frequent (near daily use) for months and I have never had a broken or stuck popsicle! Juice is so much simpler than individually wrapped, dye filled popsicles and the kids are equally eager for the handmade version of the icy treat.

I must admit I love the cutesieness of things and then I appreciate them more; I think I might use and enjoy things more when they are cute so I make an effort to take a cute path when going green and that makes things not only better for the Earth but also better in my house- which is a plus.


And catching up with Brandye from Okinawa today! She's totally cute.

Please share what you've been loving lately!

braces for billie

I know I haven't been keeping up with our blog. But really, you don't want to be friends with us at the moment. We've had a cranky week...or maybe it's been a month...I'm in a crank-fog and I've lost all track of time. Have my children ever been kind or helpful in the past? I don't recall anything like that. I'll try to think of three good things to write and keep it at that.

1. Cort takes naps. That's good. He's really sweet when he's asleep.
2. We have a roof over our heads and plenty of Kix cereal. That's good.
3. I have nice handwriting. That's good.


So, there. I did it.

Apart from Billie and Jackson's NON-STOP bickering and my constant complaining about said bickering we have a very nice life.

At least there's
free bowling on the horizon.

























And Sloane's new haircut is cute.

Billie is growing up some...she has braces now but still wears her shirt backwards sometimes. I hardly ever wear my shirts backwards these days thankyouverymuch.

These lights will make you feel brand new

We had this really amazing trip to NYC- it was a while ago but what to do when there's not much fun stuff going on around here? Recall good times; A walk in Central Park with Uncle Ted

Cort carried this dagger all over for weeks and weeks. He slept with it every night until he lost it. This worked out well at Disneyworld because all the boys are dressed as pirates, or have a lightsaber on hand...the girls walk around in princess gear...it's magical. But now we're in NYC and visiting relatives with our two year old who just happens to carry a knife with him at all times. It's a little less appropriate in Central Park to run up to strangers pointing your dagger in their face and saying "I A PIRATE!" lots of people are disturbed adn I'm constantly explaining 'heh heh, it's just rubber! it's his favorite toy, he's harmless really, he just likes to threaten people, he never hurts anyone so that's practically acceptable, right? It's just that he's our 4th child...we give him anything he wants and right now he's into knives. Anyway, what kind of person are you? Threatened by someone wearing pink sparkly shoes with light up hearts. Really!'

Billie, Sloane and I got to ride the subway. Sloane was the only person in NYC wearing this hat because I KNIT DAT!

Then we went to a Broadway show. Possibly the best night ever and we are still dancing around on couches at least once a week here to the new version of Practically Perfect and Billie's favorite: Brimstone and Treacle. This spurred Billie to read all the books in the Mary Poppins series and the weekly singalongs have pushed Jackson's tolerance of our performances over the edge. Billie has resorted to headphones on her I-pod. Each time he's out of the house for an outing with friends or family we are staging our own musicals.

Torty

Yesterday was Earth Day and we talked about it throughout the day as we hung with friends at the park (yes, that is the 4th weekday in a row we've spent the ENTIRE day at a park...and I bet you can guess where we're headed today. As of late, our homeschool has turned into more of a parkschool system. Fear not, traditionalists; Jackson is constantly digging up rocks and checks out gems and minerals books from the library to discern which types he's found then sharing/showing/explaining to the rest of us. Certifiable science.) Anyhow, it was Earth day and then as I was laying in bed with Cort while he falls asleep he suddenly remembered something "Hey! Santa not bring us any presents!!?" He knows what happens on holidays! Why hasn't someone incorporated candy as the most essential part of Earth day?

Happy Hunters