A week of field trips

Both London and Cannon came home with permission slips last week for field trips, and requests for chaperones.  So being the good mom, I signed up for both.  I was pretty confident I could handle the 3rd graders, but must admit I was a little nervous about the 8th graders.  Especially since it was mandatory to ride the bus with the 8th graders!  For an hour.  To Olympia.  Did I mention there were 50 8th graders on the bus?

Tuesday was London's trip to the zoo.  I was assigned to London and two other boys and then let loose in the zoo with my only instructions to make sure they all made it back to the Education Center by 11:15.  I quickly teamed up with another mom who only had two boys under her charge and we headed out to see the sharks.  I learned a lot about animals that day.  First, that boys are very different from girls.  And secondly, that London is a very well behaved animal.  :)  But I succeeded in being a good chaperone and guided the boys around the zoo.

The red wolf

The arctic fox.

The new baby tigers

London and the Gyrfalcon (he desperately wanted to see the birds of prey and this was the only one they had.)

My group and the sharks.

It was a fun day and I'm glad I got to share it with London.

On Thursday came Cannon's trip to the state capitol.  They've been learning about government and this was their chance to see it in action.  The Capitol building in Olympia is really beautiful and both Cannon and I were much more impressed with the architecture than the politics. 

It's built out of stone and the inside is mainly varying types of marble (Italian, Belgium, some from Alaska, etc.)  In fact it's the fourth highest masonry building in the world.  It also has  three Tiffany  chandeliers which are now valued in the millions of dollars each.  Maybe if they sold them they could put more money into education?  Just a thought.... Did you also know that Washington is the only state to have a green flag?  A bit of useless trivia for you.

Inside the rotunda with one of the Tiffany chandeliers (believe it or not, that's big enough to fit a VW bug inside it)

Listening to the senator in the reception room.

The green flag of today, with the US flag when Washington became a state mounted behind it above the fireplace.

The classes were able to meet with one of our State reps and a State senator as well as see the Lieutenant Governor.  I don't think the kids were impressed by that, but our tour guide was quite thrilled.

And I have to say, for all my trepidation, the 8th graders were much, much better than I had anticipated - although the bus ride home made me about deaf!

Leprechaun

So I'm tucking Emmy in tonight and she tells me that her teacher, Ms. Conti, has Leprechauns that have visited the class.  They've even left behind treasures.  Furthermore, Ms. Conti has told the kids that if they leave a coin by their bedside, a Leprechaun might might come visit their room, take the coin and maybe leave them a treat.  (Thanks, Ms. Conti!)

So Emmy puts a nickel on the dresser next to her bed.

A few minutes later, she looks at me and says, "Mom, that's kind of weird, isn't it?  A little man coming into my room in the night and taking my coin and then staring at me while I'm sleeping?  I think I'll put it on the floor so he can't see me."

At which point she sat up, threw the coin on the floor and laid down for bed.

Tacoma Art Museum

One of the nice things I've figured out about having the kids in school and Stevie having random days off during the week because of his call schedule is that we have time to have "date days".  It's still pretty rare that we go out at night as a couple, but we do get to have time together during the week at least one day a week.

Usually we try to go to lunch and then have time to leisurely run errands, but this week we decided to go to the Tacoma Art Museum, which seemed like an awesome thing to do without kids!

The museum collection was surprisingly small, but it was still nice to get to do something cultural without having a little one tugging at you or begging you to hold their coat or moaning, "When are we going to be done?"  One of the best rooms was the Chihuly glass sculptures which made this art museum better than the actual Tacoma Glass Museum.

Date day

Chihuly - they looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book



Chihuly - these looked like jelly fish.

So beautiful.

My Latest Obsession

If you ask my kids or Stevie, they would all verify that I have a tendency to get an idea in my brain and then harp on it until I have mastered it/done it.  By now they know better than to question my motives and have definitely learned that their help will be required no if's, and's or but's!  So have I mentioned what my latest obsession is?  Gardening.

Yes, last fall I took a look at what we affectionately call the "lower 40" (the name is a long story and comes from my childhood...) and decided it would be an excellent place for a garden.  Last fall it was nothing more than a wasteland of chopped off weeds and wild animal dung and I thought it was just begging to be turned into something.  So last fall I started building up a bed via the gardening style called "lasagna gardening".  No, you don't grow only vegetables used in lasagna, but put layer after layer of compostable materials down to build up a super rich soil and by doing so eliminate the need for any digging. (No digging = less work *in theory*)

You're supposed to layer grass clippings, leaves, yard waste, etc. but since I decided to do this after grass mowing season and since we don't have any deciduous trees in our yard, I encountered my first challenge.  Never fear!  I "convinced" my neighbor across the street to let Emmy and I rake her leaves so I could use them.  And then I hand gestured my idea to the Guatemalan landscaping team at another neighbor's house and they brought me several wheelbarrows full of clippings.  And then I raided my other neighbor's compost pile (with his permission) and soon had a fairly full bed.

So there it has sat all winter doing its thing (hopefully).  In the meantime, I've been brainstorming, dreaming, sketching, reading, talking, and denying any practical advice in preparation for the planting season.  You see, if only it were as easy as thinking out what we wanted to plant.  No, life is never that simple.  That, it turns out, is the easy part of gardening.  The hard part was designing a way to keep out pests.  Did you read that part about me "denying any practical advice"?  Well, that practical advice, given to me by everyone I talked to, said that the deer will eat everything.  And if the deer don't get it, then the rabbits will.  And if the deer and the rabbits don't get it, then the slugs will. And if the deer, rabbits, and slugs don't get it, then it will mildew from too much rain and not enough warmth and sunshine. Humph.  This gardening thing was supposed to be fun.  A way to enjoy fresh air and sunshine.  A way to save money on food.

If I were logical and reasonable, I probably should have heeded all the advice I heard and just bought vegetables at the local farmer's market and be done with it.  But unfortunately, I'm more obstinate than logical and reasonable (I'm sure Stevie is grinning with pleasure at my admission of this).  So I plowed on (get the pun? ha, ha)

I dragged Stevie and the kids to Home Depot, Lowes and the Farm Store more times than they wanted to count and visited a few times on my own.  I sketched and resketched and dreamed up more plans than I wanted to count.  And then did it all over again.  Finally, we decided to put up a hog wire fence around the pre-established garden bed and make a lid to go on top out of chicken wire and 1x3's.  It sounded like a good plan, but then it didn't work. So we ended up with a hog wire fence and a giant "lid" sitting over to the side waiting to be "repurposed".  The posts Stevie set for the gate are still waiting for the concrete to set (that was 5 days ago).

The bed is built up with wooden slats around it so I'm hoping this will be bunny-proof, if not I guess I'll add a layer of chicken wire (or "poultry fencing" as the new PC term is).  As for the slugs?  I'm going to throw them a beer bash when the plants get rolling.  At least that's the plan for now.

Cannon's Patton

Cannon had to research and read extensively about a famous person recently for his Language Arts class.  He chose Patton, pleasing his dad to no end!  Monday was the culmination of the project when the students had to dress the part and then have a "tea party" with other characters from the class during which they discussed their famous person.

Here's Cannon as "Patton"!

At least now I know what he can be for Halloween this year!

Twanoh State Park

Our Sunday was a gorgeous, sunny day and we took the opportunity to be outdoors and go for a hike.  For Christmas, our good friend Kelly gave us a book of hikes around the Olympic Peninsula area and this was the first time we've been able to explore one of them.  We were hesitant to drive too far, not because of the drive, but we were more afraid we'd loose the sunshine!  Weather patterns are strange around here and it can quickly go from a bright shiny day to overcast and rainy.

Anyways, we first picked a park that was a wetland preserve in a place called Belfair.  We thought London would really like it because there were ospreys, eagles and other wildlife around.  Alas, once we arrived, Stevie quickly figured out that you weren't allowed dogs in the preserve.  Bummer.  So we had our pic-nic lunch and then proceeded on to another park another few miles down the road.

Twanoh (Native American for "gathering place") is a beautiful state park on the Hood Canal.  On one side you can walk along the shore sidestepping over oysters, clams and other tasties.  Stevie was most intrigued by this, and even more so when he found out that oyster season is open right now.  Of course we had no equipment, and more importantly no permit, with us.  We might have to investigate this shellfish fishing and get on board!

Look at this giant starfish helping himself to clams and oysters

London thought he needed rescuing since he was half out of the water.

So after perusing the beach and basking in the sunshine, we crossed the road and headed off into the roads for an amazingly beautiful walk.  I was all geared up and excited about the hike, but after reading the message board and seeing this:

I have to say I was a little hesitant.  I mean I thought I only had to deal with bears, but now cougars too???  Needless to say we told the kids to stick close to us and OK'd the use of noise.  They're very good at that anyways. :)  The hike was moderately difficult and had us all (except Cannon whose internal temperature control is all messed up) shedding clothes and puffing and panting.  But then we reached the summit and the downhill wasn't so tough.

Look at the size of that tree!

Hard to tell, but these were trees growing out of the base of another fallen tree.

What can I say???

He was actually in trouble for not walking well on the leash, but he looks pretty happy!

See, I went on the walk too.

The scenery is stunning and I love to drink it all in, I'm just happy to report that a cougar siting was not on my list of nature finds for the day!

These moss draped trees are so beautiful, especially with the light coming from behind.

Dusting Legos

I remember the day when I was challenged by purposeful, thought-provoking, world-changing dilemmas.  But that was, dare I say, over 20 years ago when I was a student of the world and my main ambition was to change it for the better.

Skip forward 20 odd years and my current title is "house wife" and so by interpreting that title I find that I am married to the house.  Which means I'm supposed to care for it, right?  Which translates by all dictionaries as meaning I'm supposed to clean.  I hate cleaning.  There, I said it and I feel better (slightly) for admitting it to the world.  The problem is, admitting it still doesn't make it go away.  See the thing with cleaning is it's like a bad boss - relentless, a slave-driver and never satisfied.  There really is no point when everything is actually clean, is there?  The toilet may be cleaner after I pour half a bottle of Lysol Toilet Cleaner down it, but it still isn't clean.  And I can get down on my hands and knees and scrub the floors until they sparkle - and then the dog walks through to his water bowl and I know my efforts have instantly been erased.

But the biggest challenge I find with cleaning is Legos.  Can anyone out there relate???  I mean I love Legos.  I played with them when I was a kid and they have brought many hours of enjoyment to my kids (and to me for they are quiet and busy while playing with Legos).  But Legos are not something you play with and then put away, at least not in my house.  Legos are something that you play with, create an intricate structure either from the kit directions or from your own imagination, and then proudly display on your shelf.  And that's where the problem arises!

In my house I have shelves and shelves of Lego creations.  Cannon's room is the worst; he has the biggest collection.  London, following his big brother, has some Legos, but not the museum-quantity that Cannon has.  And even Emmy gets into the act every now and then and creates something.

Shelves of Legos

Emmy's creation (note the broken wing...yep, that was my dusting)

So what's the problem? Well, have you ever tried to dust a Lego creation? It's gotta be the most impossible chore there is. For every time the Swiffer cruises over the structure, something falls off. I mean I try my utmost to be gentle, to cradle the figure while lightly passing the cloth over it and then, a piece falls off. Damn! Where does that go? And while trying to put that piece back on, whoops, there goes another piece. Shoot! Where does that go? And then heaven forbid that I might drop a creation and it shatters into a million little Lego pieces that used to resemble a dragon and now resembles, well, a pile of Lego pieces. *$$%#Q! Curse the makers of Legos!

 

Now where does this go?

And while trying to figure that out, I knocked off that little yellow thing.

Fortunately, for the most part my crime goes undetected since the kids don't see what happened.  If I did get called out on it, I suppose I could always blame it on the cat (of course that alibi is defunct now that I'm confessing it on the internet).  But as I was "cleaning" today, I did have to stop and think about the crazy turns my life has taken and how I am standing here contemplating not how to solve the world's problems, but how to dust a Lego.  And I wouldn't change a day.