My Little Soapbox

I am making some random notes for the memory box.

Jr. has an old man tooth. His second front tooth is crooked as all get out but not actually that loose. Thus far he’s not been bothered by it though yesterday when Lil’B smucked him in the mouth we had tears for a bit.
Lil’B is afraid of thunder. This has made for long nights for we parents and the little man himself. He’s fine once he snuggles with us but then he’s snuggling with us. And to be honest he’s not that small anymore. Also he likes to sleep with his arms in strange locations like poking into my back just under my shoulder bone making me quite uncomfortable.

The boys saw the Chipmunk movie - two actually the new one and an classic chipmunk movie. They like the music especially the updated version of witch doctor. This tickles me because we (my siblings and I) used to dance like nuts to the classic witch doctor. And I remember how proud/excited we were to finally get all the words down.

Harley is being a chewy puppy again. Tonight he murdered a poor stuffed parrot. I had parrot fluff guts all over my living room. That I don’t care about. What I do care about is that the rotten mutt some how got a hold of my favorite purple pen and chomped it to bits?! Why he eats things like that when the floor is filled with lots of Harley toys I don’t know! Strange rotten mutt….

We celebrated Daddy’s birthday this weekend along with Father’s Day. I think we managed to have a pretty good weekend. We opted to try a movie in the theater with the boys. I think we have finally reached that point with the kids where we will be able to successfully take in a movie! Lil’B made it through the whole movie though his butt it still to small to keep the seats down! Jr. asked to see the movie again as soon as the credits rolled. And we all agreed that the preview of WALL-E made it look like a movie to see! The movie we saw was Kung Fu Panda and it gets a thumbs up from our house!

I’m shopping for a laptop. Yes I’ve finally decided that enough is enough and portability means something to me. So we’ll see what I decide to go with at present I’m debating between windows or mac. So I’m a bit off from deciding. Opinions anyone??

Slowing down summer. Our summer had been planned with plenty of activity and going. But with the weather, the mowing, the garden and a few other things -  I’ve found that our summer thus far has been a series of s l o w i n g down. And I’m having to remind myself that SLOW isn’t BAD. Where I get the idea that a slowness to life is bad, I’m not sure but becoming aware of it has made me rethink trying to speed up summer. I know we are missing out on somethings but I think that we are also gaining in other areas. We’ve been wanting to do some simplifying (decluttering) but that takes time. Time we now have because we aren’t go-go-going. Of course sorting, filing and the most important getting rid - well it’s not very glamorous! But necessary and very good. The positive affect that decluttering and simplifying has even on the small spots that we’ve managed to get “completed” is fantastic.

We’ve also been gaining on the family time. I can’t remember when the boys have had so many small snatches of PLAY with their Daddy. We have had more sword fights, wrestling and other boy rambles. We’ve also managed to find that family time that we are always lamenting to just hangout as a family. So I’m trying to embrace the idea of a slower summer. Re-evaluating and adjusting my expectations for what summer will hold. I’m making goals to give us things to accomplish in the slowness of summer and to prepare us for a fantastic fall. So here’s to a slow summer rolling into a faster fall!

It occurred to me the other day that some of the people who stop this blog by may be wondering how we are doing. Especially since Iowa is making headlines on all three primetime news channels. For the record we are fine. We’ve got annoying water problems not house threatening ones. Small potatoes truly. We are staying home a bit more because so many of the places we go are blocked off or nearby the rivers.

We are saddened by the Tornado in Little Sioux. It was a bit too close for my sister in western Iowa. But she and the kids are okay too. We are watching the river rise. I am floored by the pictures coming from Eastern Iowa. And I’m concerned about some of my friends in Coraville/Iowa City.

Just a quick note to say we’re okay (in case anyone was wondering :D)

The lat part of last week was mostly about catching up:
We caught up on the lawn mowing.
We caught up with some friends.
I caught up on laundry.
We caught up on cleaning the toy infested living room.
We caught up as a family with each other.

And in other ways it was about keeping up:
I kept up with my daily notes, letters goal.
I kept up with the daily gardening “something” and we happily dug in the dirt almost everyday.
Jr. kept up with his daily piano practice and had a much better lesson at the end of the week.
Lil’B kept us updated as to how many days until his birthday. It’s getting closer!!
And Daddy kept working towards his vacation which begin today.

We’re on vacation this next two weeks. But I’m hopeful that I’ll still be updating regularly. We have once again decided to keep this round of vacation time small scale and local. But there is a list of things to do and places to see being made - so I think I’ll still feel pleasantly frazzled by the end.

Recaps of the week to give you and me a clue where it went!

Sunday: Jr.’s Recital and that evening Baby J came to stay for a couple days!

Monday: Baby J and a Park Day Meeting. The meeting of the moms was great. Jr. suffered again from his tender tummy and we ended up packing up early due to him being queasy. I’m still of the opinion that some seasonal sniffles combined with a merry-go-round was behind his queasy self.

Tuesday: Baby J and a windy day. Well it was windy as heck so I had to keep all the boys inside which made for a fun but crazy day in our house. We had a good day all around with Baby J. His mama came to get him late in the afternoon so we cozied up and relaxed - just us Tuesday night.

Wednesday: Clean like you mean it! And also homeschool. Catch up day here with a smidge of outdoorsy adventure in a mucky, rainy yard. Yay rain (can you hear my sarcasm?)

Thursday:Traveling with Harley. Oh that poor puppy! He’s got a queasy tummy too only I can’t tell if its the driving or the nerves. So a trip to the Vet is always a bit more time consuming what with the extra cleaning. Harley got a clean bill of health and is currently 31 pounds at 4 months! And it rained today.

Friday: It rained. All day. Again. So we took care of school and moved up to kitchen chemistry where we baked bread, donuts and cookies.

So How was your week?

Anger in its place

May assume a kind of grace

If it has some reason in it

and never lasts

beyond a minute.

Awhile back I happened upon a book of Betsey Clark illustrations paired with simple everyday type proverbs. I was delighted and have plans to convert the book into a bit of wall art for my home as I have a large love for this nostalgic artwork. This one caught my eye this past week on a particularly long day. My dear Jr. was having a time and spent several small spans being angry with me throughout the day.

Anger would come.
It would be present in the moment.
And then the anger would be smaller
And finally fade away.

Finding Jr. being better off for the flare and then the letting go. While it was frustrating to be there at the time on reflection I was pleased to see some of our family philosophies in play. I’ve long had a personal philosophy that one shouldn’t hold anger to long. So I embrace it! Hug it close! Wrap myself up in it! Then I let it go with an active thought. I recent years I’ve even been known to say “I’m not putting my energy there.” Family squabbles and squibbles aren’t worth the toll to myself when I’m terminally angry. It becomes like a disease in my soul.

Now just to keep it honest here - I’m not always that good at following my own philosophy but it is one that I work at everyday. And I’d like to think that’s what counts in this case. At the end of the day (or at least the end of these recent days) I’d rather be focused on the fact that it has been a long few weeks for us all. And that we are all glad to see it fade away towards spring.

that’s where we are this week. As much as we can.

I had some other thoughts but they were mostly cranky, crummy third month of tax season thoughts. Maybe if they improve I’ll post them.
In the meantime I’m off to tromp off some steam raking leaves while the boys play.