weekend activities

Reading, baking cookies, playing with the Perplexus. We actually did a lot of other things besides these calm activities, but I'm going to save that for another post. It is nice sometimes to just to have some down time. 

Bringing in the light

We rediscovered these Storm player bobble heads that I hid when she was little and forgot about. 

But I didn't have enough Lego time today- is what he always says when we try to do anything else.

Unity hearts Taylor Swift. I guess it could be worse?

The glow stick prize from the dentist. 

 This week:

Unity got a part in the school play. She's a cat and she's very excited that all her lines will be meowing.

Brixton has had extra time to play with his best bud from school.

I've been working on the jigsaw puzzle that is our summer schedule. It seems wacky to plan so far ahead but this is when the camps start registration, so this is when we do it.

Chris and I have both been getting up at six, so he can run on the treadmill and I can write. It's brutal but it's working.

I was able to take a writing class at the Hugo House this weekend, which was really helpful and fun. It was nice, although difficult, to carve out some time to talk about writing and strategies. Unity had Friday off for stupid reasons, (budget cuts, in a nutshell. The teachers were supposed to work unpaid and the kids stayed home. Lose, lose.) She went over to a friend's house and hung out. Later we played a bunch of games and when Brixton came home from preschool, they decided to scrub the kitchen floor together. I swear, this was all them. They did quit after about 15 minutes, but some of the tiles are definitely cleaner than they were. 

Unity also decided to sew a little pocket slash bed for her paper doll. I love the ways they find to entertain themselves. Well, except for the ways that involve wrestling with each other on my bed. That I could do without. 

weekend

It's been cold and clear and sunny here- bright sharp days that remind me of winter in the mid-west. 

We had a family date on Friday, using one of our Chinook book coupons to go to a lovely Thai restaurant. We managed to get through the meal with only one child having to take a walk outside while waiting for food and only one child having to be reminded that we don't sleep with our heads on the table in restaurants, no matter how full we may be. 

So, pretty successful in other words.

Unity had a gymnastics meet on Saturday. Her team did well enough to advance to the championships next weekend so she is excited about that. I wasn't sure how she would do in this "pre-competitive" track but it's been good so far. 

We have a new houseplant to add to the botanical collection. This one is a sundew, and while it is fun and interesting, we are also hoping it will be a fruit fly predator as well. 

Also this weekend, Brixton and I made cookies while Unity had a friend over and Unity read all of Houseboat Girl by Lois Lenski. I adored this author as a kid, and read through a whole shelf of her books at my local library. Seeing Unity enjoy the books I loved as a kid has been something that I've been looking forward to since the day I found out I was pregnant. 

I've been a little nonplussed with some of the books she's brought home from her school library. There's a whole fairy series that is stretched a bit thin. Titles include Caylee the carnival fairy and Georgia the guinea pig fairy. She also brought home a book that was all about the beauty shop and boys. I'm  not going to tell her what she can and can't read. I certainly know that can backfire. There's a famous story in my family about how I was told not to read my grandmother's romance novel and promptly stayed up all night to read it after everyone else was asleep. 

But, I am glad to steer her towards books that I find enriching and I love when she loves them too. Bonding over books is one of my favorite ways to connect. 

The weekend was full of origami and castle blocks. We did some preparations for Halloween. Unity had a gymnastics meet and Brixton and I stayed home and took pictures of each other. Unity's team came in first, so she was excited about that.

Chris and I had one of those talks on Friday night that started out about one thing and ended up all over the place. When it was done, I said I felt like we just had a staff meeting about our family. Which is true sometimes you just need to get on the same page with things.  I think we have figured out some things, about schedules and snacks and the house, at least for now.

So, our weekend was pretty good. We had the last day of swim lessons. The kids have both made big improvements in this area over the summer. Brixton even moved up a level! 

Sunday morning we went to Meeting, and afterwards we had an orientation for the First Day school program that is starting up now. I'm on the committee that organizes the curricula and the volunteer teachers, so this is one of my big projects for the year. It's fun to see it getting started and to have some of that new year energy.

Unity also had a birthday party to attend, and then we went to a coming-of-age gathering for a teen from the Meeting. This teen is very sweet with my kids and they treat her like a celebrity, jumping all over themselves to spend time with her. It was very nice to attending her gathering and hear some wonderful ministry about growing up and the impact that she's had on the people around her. Very inspirational. 

Weekend in August

We had a restful weekend, with not much going on. It was nice to get caught up on chores, to work on the house and the garden and just have some chill out time. Our summer hasn't really been that busy but we've been gone for the past two weekends so weeds and laundry are always there. 

Today after Meeting, we went to a drive-through car wash. It was pretty exciting to sit there and watch the soap suds get sprayed all around us. The kids said they want to try it in a convertible next. 

Last night after dinner we went for a walk together. Brixton's preschool is doing a play of "Where the Wild Things Are" so we were talking about how he is a wild thing. He said "I am many of things." We talked about how that's true for all of us and we each took turns talking about all of our "things" that make us who we are. 

Longest Day

We had a weekend full of light, full of friends, full of hard work and projects. A weekend of three birthday parties, a gathering of my Quaker parenting group at Meeting, and Chris working on a big house project that involves replacing some siding, and digging a trench to put in some rat-proof wire against the side of the house. Phew. We celebrated the longest day by filling our days up to the brim. 

Let's hope this coming week is a little more steady. The solstice is fun and all but there's a reason it only comes twice a year. 

the weekend

This weekend was calm, in contrast to all our parties in the earlier half of the month.I got to go see this with a college friend, which was delightful.

 Lots of time for costumes, and games. For playing chess and memorizing Frozen lyrics, and playing with snap circuits.  

For the little bits of rest and play. I enjoy the parties and visiting with people, but I also enjoy the balance of rest. 

This weekend

            On Thursday Unity's school had a culture night where families brought food and clothing from their heritage to share. I made my grandma's Irish Soda bread and it came out well. No leftovers.

Chris got to visit with friends who were in town from the East Coast, and to see a show. I went to a training for a new project I'm starting (more on that later) and to a small press book fair. 

The kids spent most of the weekend holed up in their room listening to the Frozen soundtrack on repeat, after we banned it from the living room. I think I will never get that song out of my head. They both said that listening to it was their favorite part of the weekend.

Snow for the weekend

You know, if we are going to have snow I'm ok with it showing up on Saturday night, sticking around long enough to play in on Sunday and then melting away by Monday morning.

It's like a playdate with snow. 

This weekend Chris and Unity visited the math store and got a new book. They decided together that the math homework she gets from school wasn't quite enough and they wanted to do more together. They found a workbook that has problems similar to the ones she's doing in school and they've been working on it every day. She is excited about it, it helps that it's a special thing she can do with Dad and he can share how fun it is for him. 

We got one of our seed orders in and daydreaming about Spring can officially begin. 

And Brixton was working on his music of course. His drum teacher uses an approach where each rhythm has the name of a different animal. Brixton will sing/chant the animal names and try to write his own rhythms. Again, he is really excited about this. 

I know it sounds like we are trying to run a Lil Genius factory over here but it's fun to watch them exploring their passions and getting totally sucked in to their practice/play.