You so emabarrass me, take two

Today at church, Jon slipped the cloth grocery bag that held the kids' art supplies on to his back in a makeshift type backpack. Eli, walking behind Jon, looked up and said, "You are SO embarrassing me Dad." Jon mentioned this to good old Pastor Harvey at the end of the service and Harvey's twinkly-eyed quote was: "He's just going to have to get over it!" I liked that.

I know something else that would so embarrass Eli if he knew about it. Here's my secret: Some days when I am walking to school at 3:30 to pick up the boys, I get to the top of the hill at Niles and Brimhall and I can't help but skip down. It is the type of hill that just offers itself up for skipping. And given the grade and the sometimes icy conditions, the skipping can get a little wild. I always slow down and get myself back to a controlled walk by the time I am across the street from Expo where the kids going out to the busses can see me. But I am sure I have been busted by more than a handful of parents who are on their way to pick up their kids. Oh well. I have never had a skipping session that hasn't elevated my mood and plastered a smile on my face- and there just aren't enough opportunities to skip in this life. Unless you are Theo. He has recently rediscovered the lost art (and I do mean lost, he had it back in preschool, but then lost it and has been dilegently working on the logistics for at least a year) and lets fly with a wild skip anytime he can. He is currently skipping around the dining room table as I type this. Theo has this particularly jubilant way of skipping. He gets the non-hopping leg way up in the air, his upper body rotates about 90 degrees, and his arms flail out to either side. It's a wonder he doesn't injure himself or others. But I defy anyone who sees him skip to deny the smile that is playing on their lips. It brings back these memories of the days when a walk through the slushy parking lot from the grocery store door to the car was not a slog, but an opportunity to skip. We should all do it more often.

Living with the Fosters

Our family went to the Omni theater movie "Cowboys From Around the World" last week. This film followed the history of cowboying from Morocco, up through Spain, and then over to the
'new world'. Every person in the film was horribly fit and strong looking, and I bet they never had to face a dreadmill at the stinky midway Y in their lives. The movie ended with a family up in British Colombia. The Fosters. This good-looking crew cut trees to make logs for their home, grew their own food, homeschooled the current batch of children, and spent the days outside on horses, doing things that ranchers in the northern climates do. It was quite romantic and lovely. I declared to my family that I truly thought that I was supposed to have been a Foster- that I had ended up a St. Paul city girl by some mistake. That evening passed with several Foster references and jokes and then we all went off to bed. In the morning I awoke at 8am (a horrendously rare occurence here with Sir 6:45 am- Eli). Anyway, upon laying eyes upon Eli for the first time, he gave me a smirk and said, "Oh Mom, the Fosters have been up for hours...you'd never make it in that group." He's probably got a point.

A birthday gift

Last night Theo told me that it was Lucy's (the cute, soft, classmate) birthday that day and he had given her a gift. He had written a whole sentence just for her. And this is a big thing for Theo. He is much more into drawing pictures than writing words. But yesterday it was his good pal's birthday and a big gesture was in order. So he focused long enough to get out a whole sentence. And what did he write for the birthday girl? "Lucy, what would I do without you?"

Toothless

My little guy has lost his first tooth. sigh.

Pine Scent Air Freshener

The boys and I were walking through the alley on the way to school one sunny day last week. We walked under the eaves of a big white pine. Eli took a deep breath, inhaling in the wonderful smell, and promptly said, "Boy I feel a need to go to Camp DuNord. It's time to get back up north, I miss it!" He told me that he was sitting in music class the other day and all of the sudden he was consumed with a need to get out to camp, to play in the woods. That statement warmed my heart. That smell of pine needles in the sun will always bring me back to my summers at camp- it's time for me to get back up north again too.

Believing in Spring

The warmth of the sun yesterday at 5pm had me believing that spring may actually arrive this year. I felt like I unscrunced my shoulders for the first time in about 33 weeks. And it was only 25 degrees. But the sun is out until past 7pm and it has that lovely force of warmth that gets you believing that change is going to come. That said, I did get out for one last fabulous ski today. I was able to hit that sweet spot around 1o am between when the overnight ice defrosts, but the sun hasn't turned the snow to exhausting slush quite yet. By my second loop around Highland golf course the slush was coming on and I was working hard.
This is the time of year when parents of elementary-aged children start the frantic summer signing-up ritual. This year we decided to only pick two daycamps for the boys- a week in June out at good old Camp St. Croix, and then a week in July at what looks to be a new found treasure. They get to go to a working farm each afternoon for a week. The brochure promises lots of brushing of ponies, getting eggs out from under hens, and other such treats. They pick and cook their snack each day! This place has a website, but in Eli's words, "It is sooo old school." From the looks of it, I think they have managed to keep their farm a lazy reminder of yesteryear. I hope so. The boys are completely excited.
For the rest of the summer we are going to find ways to get out and about as a family. We have our week scheduled at DuNord and are already laughing in anticipation of the fun that will come when we gather with our pals the NeskeMoens and the Neilsens. And then there is talk of a long car trip out to the mountains to visit an old pal of Jon's at his Colorado cabin. Our boys have never been to the mountains and I have these visions of them tromping through the woods and playing in streams. But the thing that really has me excited is plans to take a short canoe/camping trip down the namekogan. We have had the kids out in the canoe quite a bit in the past, but we have never done an overnight river trip. I hope that it is the beginning of a long romance for them. All these thoughts just because if you step outside right now and turn your face to the sun it kind of warms you right to your bones and it gets you thinking....

Book Club for Boys

Last Friday Eli and I went to the second meeting of the book club we started for he and 6 of his classmates. This one was not at our house- someone else happily volunteered to host it after the inaugral meeting at our house featured a surprise attack on the parents that involved every last piece of faux weaponry in our admittedly vast aresenal. This last meeting did not involve any weapons, but that did not stop the seven boys from playing a rollicking game of tag, indoors. But, it should be noted, their game involved 'the cheese touch' which was directly from that month's book. All the parents had to do was sit in the kitchen and sip our tea with our fingers crossed. That is the ticket to avoiding the dreaded cheese touch. And it was also a surefire way to find out which parents had actually read the book, and which had not. Eventually, we gathered the kids in the living room and had a brief but fun discussion of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It was loved thoroughly by all people under 12. And Tom Gau. Those older than that found it amusing but wondered how many more books we could read that were totally devoid of anything resembling a plot. I guess we'll find out. They voted for A-Z Mysteries: The Yellow Yacht for next month. If it is a murder mystery, we parents better keep a close eye on the pre-discussion game playing at the next meeting!!