Summer Advice

Just because school is over doesn’t mean we can’t have recess.

–Jonah, age 5

I am NOT having recess at the moment. Quite to the contrary, I am having Make Long Lists and Run Around Gathering, Cleaning, Packing, and Preparing so that we can have something of a recess later this week in Ojai. But it was a nice reminder from The Boy that summer is here, with all its restful possibilities, and I shouldn’t waste it trying to cram in everything I can’t get done during the school year.

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Hippie

As I’m mixing cornbread batter. . .

Naiah (age 4): Mommy, can I have some of that flour?

Me: Why do you want flour?

Naiah: I want to have powers.

Me: It gives you powers?

Naiah: Yeah. It gives me flour power.

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Hello, blog.

How are you? I’m sorry you’ve been so lonely and neglected. I feel the guilt.

But there’s this thing called ‘summer’. It’s outside right now. I’d rather not miss it.

Here’s the haps of late:

The kids are in VBS every day this week, near the lake. When we drive over the causeway in the mornings the water is perfectly still and a warm, muddy-green smell blows in through the windows. Lassen peak is still snowy above it all. It makes me sad to think of leaving this someday.

Ella is walking a few steps now and then, never a very long string of steps, just a few when she feels like it. She’s obsessed with pushing the blue push car that Jonah used as a toddler. She also likes to unload dirty forks and spoons from the silverware basket in the dishwasher while I load it. She’ll be very helpful someday, I’m sure.

Naiah received a purple bike and a purple bike helmet for her birthday. She is beginning to use the brakes to stop, instead of her feet. Every day she asks me to take off the training wheels, but Mommy just isn’t ready for all the falling and bleeding yet, so they stay on, for now.

Jonah is mastering the bike. He was the first to go without training wheels last year, and this year he is the first to ride the entire rocky trail to the lake, and the first to stand on the pedals, and the first to make little jumps off a ramp he made. His sisters all want to imitate him.

Sarah and Anna are reading everything in the house. Soon I’ll have to order books again. (Hear the mock annoyance?) I’m very proud of their appetite for good books. I hope it lasts.

I’ve been walking/gardening/strength training/etc. every day, and now we’re starting a little walking group at the track as well! It’s been a month since I started tracking calories/fat/protein/calcium/water at Sparkpeople.com. It’s pretty habitual at this point. It doesn’t feel like a diet at all; it’s just the way I do things now. Even after I lose the weight, I think I’ll have to do some form of calorie tracking for the rest of my life, because otherwise I totally fool myself. That’s okay. It’s doable. And it’s working. Today I washed all my jeans in hot water because they’re too big! That’s a happy thing.

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Dualism

Naiah: Mommy, I think I lost my helmet for good.

Jonah: And evil.

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Busy Week

This week:

Our ninth anniversary

Final teeball games

Naiah’s birthday

Father’s Day

And all the shopping, cleaning, cooking, and energy-expending that comes with them.

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Please Join!

The battle over who decides what’s best for your kids is getting hotter and heavier.

Please read and stand up for your family’s (and our country’s) autonomy.

UNCRC UPDATE

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Well, She Did It

No pictures yet, but Ella walked. Three steps. (sniffle)

It was bound to happen.

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Brotherly Advice

Jonah (age 5): Ella, I don’t want you to marry a bum.

Ella (age 9 months):

Jonah: Remember, don’t marry a bum! Okay? And you have to watch out, because sometimes a guy will pretend he’s NOT a bum, when really he is. And then you find out after the wedding! So DON’T marry a bum. Okay?

Ella:

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Beat to the Punch

Anna (age 7): Mommy, I’m going to make a website that does something totally new!

Me: Awesome!

Anna: Know what it’s going to be?

Me: No.

Anna: It’s going to be a website where you can just type in a word, and then hit a button that says “Find Websites”, and then it gives you a list of all the websites about that word!

Me: Oh, like a search engine?

Anna: A what?

Me: A search engine, like Google. You type in a word or phrase and it gives you a list of websites about it.

Anna:. . . Oh. So it’s not a new thing?

Me: Not really.

Anna: Aw, man!

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Healthy = Fun

I did my darndest not to engage in any fitness/health/nutritious enterprises for the past eight years. I thought eating whatever whenever whyever was just fine and dandy. I was sure I’d feel constricted if I tried to change my diet or activity habits.

I’m so over that.

It’s been four weeks now since I signed up with SparkPeople. I’ve been meeting my caloric and nutritional goals almost every day, and I love what I’m eating. I’ve been walking, hiking, running, playing, and strength training regularly, and it’s fun. My energy levels are high, my thinking is longterm and positive, and the extra weight is coming off bit by bit.

It feels like I’m remembering who I am– that girl who spent her dating years climbing up and down mountains, running the lake trails, climbing trees, playing ball at the beach. . . We spent our entire Sunday afternoon playing a pickup game of kickball and soccer at the park. Yesterday the kids and I hiked the long way out to the lake and back. Last week we got through an entire shopping day and still had steam to run around the park for a few hours!

The kids are loving it. I’m thanking God that I didn’t have to spend one more year believing I couldn’t be the playful, energetic mom I wanted to be. It’s a total blessing.

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