The mysteries of another pandemic Christmas!

More normal--but this
ornament, made last year, still
seems to fit. Plus it's
adorable.

Christmas felt more normal this year! Not entirely normal, as we again said no to a couple events and activities we would've loved to attend (our beloved Nutcracker, for one!). But it was nice to at least not feel the need to pre-check with the neighbors to make sure it would be okay for us to bake cookies for them.

Also, there was no astronaut when we picked out our Christmas tree.

The first major change was the major rush to Christmas shop. I usually prefer to begin my shopping the day after Thanksgiving, lest I get too caught up too early. And also since young kids have a way of changing their interests about 2 weeks before Christmas anyway (although mine are starting to level out, at least). But this year, having been warned about shortages and shipping issues, I started passing around the Christmas catalogs nearly as soon as they arrived after Halloween, and warning the girls that even Santa couldn't make guarantees this year. By mid-November, I'd even made a purchase! 

As would happen, the gift Elise HAD to have, and that I ordered promptly, and that was too big to comfortably send back, she tried at a friend's house and decided she didn't want after all. As it was already wrapped, I mentally determined she would make it work. Because that's what Elise does. But would she this time?!? Christmas mystery #1. 

The second major change from last year was the potential to see family! People were available! And not in quarantine! We made actual, concrete plans! But would it actually work?!? Christmas mystery #2.

And the third was that we put some of our Christmas lights in the backyard this year, in hopes that other neighbors would follow suit and we could have our own neighborhood luminary walk along the trail. We thought the idea was so good, we even put up posters! But would anyone participate?!?

Other than that, we baked our usual cookies, made and shopped for gifts, watched the performances, saw the people, created the crafts, read the books, sang along to the music, and generally celebrated the season. Here's what that looked like:

Christmas often starts with Thanksgiving in our house! Here are the lovely plates, bowls, etc. that all of the ladies/girls painted the day after Thanksgiving.

We bought our tree at a different tree farm this year (no reason, other than it was closer), and we LOVED the selection of white pines--Matt's and my personal favorite. We found one we could literally hug, that was the perfect shape and size, and that was not already chopped down, because we did the right thing and shopped before Thanksgiving (thanks to me for shoving us all out the door!). We also saw an amazing flock of white pelicans, possibly, flying super high in cool formations.

What wasn't our favorite: trying to decorate this tree. The ornaments kept sliding off, and you can see what's happening with the star. Plus, less piney scent than other varieties. But it's still beautiful, a month and a half later!

In the above photo, Elise attempts to get the star to stand up on our floppy, yet soft and huggable, tree. The first few attempts ended up looking like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

I was so excited to have a second tree so that all our lovely handmade ornaments would be displayed! Unfortunately, so were the cats. Every morning for a while, we'd come downstairs to something like this scene. Amazingly, it all happened in the span of time between Matt getting up and the rest of us. The worst part was when the cats destroyed Grandma Jan's beautiful handmade wool ornaments... I think the only time any of us briefly reconsidered our kitten purchase a year and a half prior.

Our contribution to the trail luminary walk (the lights around the trees are a bit dim in this photo)! The girls created a poster, and then spent an hour or so taping them up on mailboxes around the neighborhood, often via scooter. Did anyone else decorate? YES! A couple friends, a couple people who looked like they might have done it anyway, and one neighbor who put lights on all the pine trees in their backyard--beautiful! Did it actually look like a luminary walk? Not so much. But we're hoping that we're starting a trend. Which would probably actually be the first trend I've ever set, in my life.

This idea was initiated, by the way, by a conversation the girls had with a nice neighbor lady on the trails. She suggested we do an event with hot cocoa and carolers and such. She got the girls all excited! And then it became my project, as many projects do if they have any hope of survival.

Alas, this one was lost. Although we nearly had interest from the HOA for the neighborhood that begins across the street from us, an event never happened. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a few after-dark walks on the trails to check out a few, widely spread light displays!

Kalina at her beautiful early December orchestra concert! While not a Christmas concert per se, it was still lovely to hear her play her music, and to see her glow.

Having sold coffee and tea to the neighbors to raise money for AHG, we thought it only right to deliver their purchases with a box of cookies and, my personal favorite, gingerbread cake (with orange-cream cheese frosting this year!). On roller blades.

We made a few cookies for ourselves, too. 

Unrelated, but possibly due to Christmas spirit, Kalina made crepes for us one morning, which was pretty noteworthy. We happened to have Nutella in the pantry and bananas on hand, soooo....

We love preparing and sending our Christmas cards! We do it assembly line style. This year, no one complained too much about signing the cards--even Matt! I think when even Naomi and Elise, who have yet to learn how to bottle up their whine well unless highly motivated, were trying to convince him it was really no big deal to sign 65 letters, he decided he could probably shoulder the burden as well.

Mandatory crocheting in the evenings as the girls made Christmas gifts for family (and a few teachers). They made dishcloths--even Naomi, for whom they were quite a challenge. She was frustrated watching her older sisters rush through them, but kept at it even when she really wanted to quit. And she's still crocheting every evening during storytime! So proud of her!

We really picked and chose our indoor events, but we were able to say yes to the luminary walk without much trouble! Almost better than the lights was the bagpiper, whose music we had to just about peel Kalina away from. Not as great: the Elvis impersonator, who was fun for about 5 minutes before just...not...being...that...great. And needing some new dance moves. And he had maybe one Christmas song, which to me is worse than being quite mediocre. 

Other covid-friendly attractions included the Christmas movies. I always feel like there should be some truly great Christmas movies out there--and there are. We've just seen them all already. Matt and I watched a couple pretty dumb ones before settling on one made in the 1940s that actually was pretty clever. The girls and I also watched some dumb ones, and I believe my credibility as a good movie-picker even slipped a bit.

It was a good thing we kept things low-key, as although Naomi developed a cold and laryngitis just in time to nearly ruin our plans, nobody got covid. The trek to Minnesota felt tenuous, but it happened. We couldn't wait to see everyone!

  

Although the snow wasn't packable at first, it was sled-able, and we took full advantage. Naomi loved doubling up with Julie, who was a adorable mix of slightly afraid and delighted at the same time. Another day, we were able to do some snow packing to make a snow alien, and Dean and Naomi had fun sled-racing. 

Gingerbread houses were fun to create! Amazingly, most of the candy actually ended up on the houses!

Matching jammies is such a fun tradition! 

Not pictured: Our amazing movie night, lots of great meals, board games, random cute things that both Julie and Dean said, and all the fun catching up with everyone.

A little Christmas morning silliness, back on our own turf! 

What do you have for Christmas breakfast when you haven't been home to buy groceries or make anything particularly yummy? Christmas toast! Using sprinkles. It worked, plus Kalina had a new cat mug for her hot cocoa.

From Naomi, Elise receives stuffed copepods to go along with her stuffed tardigrade. I'm not sure she needed anything else. But did she like the early-purchased gift for her Ninja Line?!? Maybe it was the joy of Christmas, but she very quickly decided it would work. And seemed to like using it. And has enjoyed it quite a bit since. I think we're in the clear. Thanks, Elise, for your amazing attitude, and for not making me try to return it.

Kalina asked for a dark medium-sized trilobite bent over a rock. Thanks, ebay! And Naomi hugs her Christmas puppy--a mini Holly that will travel easier than mommy Holly. She named it, appropriately, Minny.

The kitties got new bowls, with treats wrapped inside them! No one managed to open theirs until Christmas night, at which point it's entirely possible one cat opened both and devoured all 20-ish treats. Oops!

We had fun actually getting to see Grandpa and Marianne on Christmas this year! We enjoyed a lovely day together, and then two additional evenings of attempting to do a Zoom gift exchange with extended family (and eat the delicious buche de noel cake we'd made and decorated).

Unfortunately, that was close to the end of the fun, as a covid exposure kept us home, and visitors away, until after New Years. But that was okay--we'd already had a lovely holiday season. And stay tuned for our covid-exposure project....

A Day in the Life: Summer Edition

Happy 4th! We're getting ready
to see some fireworks!

I've heard of parents who dread summer, because the kids are home so they have to actually parent for hours on end. For me, it's exactly the opposite: kids are home, and all I have to do is be a parent! (And usually some freelance work, and deep-cleaning, and plan the school year, and catch up on photo albums, etc.)

I've been waiting to try to blog about a typical summer day, until we actually had a typical summer day. And finally I realized there's no such thing as a typical summer day. They're all different. So here's today, a Wednesday in the middle of a relatively quiet week:

The day starts at 12:39 a.m., when I hear a child get up, sense through my eyelids that she's turned on the hall light, and hear her enter the bathroom. I've been asleep probably about 45 minutes, so this feels downright painful. My mind races, wondering how she'll manage the kittens, who sleep in that bathroom with the door closed, and hoping she doesn't end up having to chase them through the house to put them back in. Because that means I'll be chasing them through the house as well. I also hope she's put the lid back down on the toilet, because whenever someone forgets to, we usually discover that the hard way: via freaked wet kitten tearing through the house. Fortunately, the only thing she forgets is to turn off the hall light, and that's relatively easy for me to remedy. Silence again, and fortunately I make it right back to sleep. Most nights this doesn't happen, but middle-of-the-night wakings never really end for a mommy.

At 7:00, I let the kitties out of their bathroom and into the girls' bedroom because they're far better alarm clocks and child-wakers than I am. We're tempted to let the girls sleep, but that so often leads to the older girls outlasting at least Matt at night. Technically my goal is to get them used to 6:30 or 6:45, and COVID, with all its cancelled activities, will help with that. Since it's summer, and there are kittens, the girls wake up and get out of bed fairly easily. 

They dive right into their morning jobs, which also didn't happen very easily before kittens. Naomi handles all the bunny caretaking, Elise empties the dishwasher and assists her sisters with their jobs, and Kalina does the kitten caretaking, including scooping and sweeping litter every day. I help with any deep cleaning. They also dress and get ready for breakfast. Nobody makes their bed because everyone sleeps on top of the covers since it's summer and that's easier. I have tried to fight this battle, but can't argue with the logic. The only real downside is that whenever I wash sheets, I'm actually washing comforters, which are bulky and huge, but honestly much easier than putting clean sheets on any lofted or bunked bed--which describes all three of our girls'. So again, I can't blame them.

Today, they manage the routine super seamlessly with no crises. Today. Elise tells me she had to remind her sisters that they're supposed to get dressed and have their jobs done before they come to the breakfast table, and inwardly I cheer as things move efficiently along, During breakfast, we do some reading and discussing, and go over a plan or two.

The kittens love snoozing in
our scrap box.

It helps when Elise is highly motivated by an activity she's looking forward to, and this morning she's done in record time because she's excited about making homemade cards with rubber stamps and embossing equipment. Even though it's a messy, high-maintenance activity that I know Naomi will need lots of help with when she inevitably joins in, I give Elise the go-ahead to get started as I've been promising fancy crafts like embossing all summer. Her sisters soon join her, and Elise's good mood starts to dwindle as she finds she has to share supplies. "I was planning to do this alone," she grumbles, eyeing me meaningfully. But nothing is done alone in this house, Child! Haven't you learned that? Except possibly when I clean bathrooms--nobody joins me then.

Naomi soon moves to just stamping, which is thankfully more fun for her at this point and much simpler for me. "Where can I hang this so everyone will see it?" she wonders, showing me a paper full of kittens, puppies, bunnies and paw prints. Her papers are now hung all over the living room. Kalina makes a very artistic card or two, but she mostly had her fill yesterday when she and Elise embossed while Naomi had her virtual piano lesson. Many of the stamps we're using, as well as embossing powder, are from my childhood, so we enjoy chatting about that a bit. Kalina and Elise are each working on making a set to use as thank-you notes and general cards. Naomi is just having fun.

Meanwhile, I straighten the house, put the couch pillows back on the couch, and make moves toward my computer, which I'm using a lot these days for an intense freelance assignment I'm in the thick of, planning for the school year, completing the 2019 photo album, and all the other things. I have to give up--there's too much going on.

If you look closely, you can see a raccoon
snitching from a bird feeder. It soon
waddled calmly away.

When Kalina's finished stamping, she looks aimless so I ask her if she wants to work on the board game we're creating together. It's called Symbiosis: Pond, and she came up with the idea, albeit prairie-themed initially, when we were hiking through a mini prairie together. We spend 15 minutes or so brainstorming ideas for different game events, and make some good progress. We attack things from entirely different angles, but agree about enough things that we're able to make it work. 

Afterward, Naomi reads a book about dogs aloud to me while I redo her French braids. She insists on French braids every day, and has for nearly a year now. I don't mind too much since they're cute and keep her hair neat, but it takes a good 10 minutes every day.

Hiking the arboretum one lovely
morning!

I decide I need to Get Something Done, even though it's summer (especially since it's summer?), and I begin to get out and assemble the drawer organizer I picked up for Elise's desk yesterday. Everyone wants to help, so I become management, and Kalina and Elise are labor. We get stuck on jamming the castors in, so we save them for later/Daddy, and instead put kittens in the drawers, which the kittens don't seem to mind, and would quite possibly choose for themselves, if they were allowed a choice in the matter.

After this, Elise finishes stamping, and I make everyone clean up together. It's a lot to clean up. I straighten the house and put the pillows back on the couches, then finish the little bits of cleanup they miss.

Some mornings, and especially at the beginning of summer when it's all so fresh, the girls all go off and play with Legos, or put together a play, or do crafts independently, or go outside, or whatever, while I can tackle my work, but this is destined to be more of a scattered morning for me as we zip from one activity that needs mild amounts of help or supervision to another. I could of course, put a stop to it, but it's summer so I don't mind too much. 

As no one is making any moves to doing anything interesting on their own, I push my work aside and move on to another project that's on my list. I've been promising the girls since June that we'll make garden stones together to put in the strawberry patch for easier picking, and we've purchased the supplies. We're finally going to get started, but that means we need to figure out our designs. So the girls open all the bags and begin piecing together the stones, mosaic style. I'm only needed for initial organization, so I sneak off for 20 minutes and get some freelance work done, and shoot off a few emails, and begin this blog. 

I listen as the girls argue about stones, and resolve it themselves. A win! They finish their designs and we take pictures, then organize and put away the stones. Naomi gets upset because it's found that a kitten has chewed up a puzzle piece from her favorite puppy puzzle, which she was completing on the floor. Since she's had it out several days and I've warned her multiple times that if she doesn't keep her pieces picked up, the kittens will bite them, I don't feel too bad for her, but I help her put in some pieces for a few minutes to jumpstart finishing it up. She bemoans the mishap for a bit, then proudly finishes the puzzle within 20 minutes or so.

Kalina has been playing with kittens and the box from Elise's drawer organizer, and Elise has been re-organizing her desk.

Unbelievably, it's nearly lunchtime. I decide on bagels because it seems like we've done everything else recently. Elise pops in and helps a bit, and then everyone else shows up. Shortly after sitting down, I realize it's about to rain, and I wish I'd made them all go outside this morning, since it could rain most of the afternoon. Regardless, I then realize we haven't harvested any blackberries lately and I want to do it before the grass is all wet. We all interrupt the end of lunch to do so, and find our biggest harvest yet--about 15.

After lunch, I make everyone tackle our job for the day. During the summer, I try really hard to make sure they're working and building life skills. Today, our job is to clean and vacuum the van, which really needs it. They've done this plenty of times before, but never very well, so we're going to practice more often. They spend more time playing around than cleaning, but progress is made and, besides, we can do it again next week.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine contacts me for advice about homeschool curriculum, since she's having a baby Friday and her girls' school still doesn't know what they're doing for next year. She's homeschooled before, and would rather homeschool again than do virtual school, but doesn't want to wait to figure it out, for obvious reasons. I send her photos and help her explore options, all via text and while checking on the van-cleaning project. Then another friend texts me with virtually the same question, but for her preschooler.

Afterward, we embark on the big event of the day: taking Kalina to the music store to switch out her too-small viola for a bigger size. We tried to do this last week when she auditioned for the orchestra, but as my temperature was elevated, most likely due to a hot car, I wasn't allowed inside to work on the instrument contract. My temperature had returned to normal by the time we arrived at home, but this still necessitates a second trip, and 22-minute drive. I blasted the air conditioning, even though it was a cool day. 

We have baby skinks in our
yard!

At the shop, we wear our masks without any kind of a fuss, and are not temperature checked this time. We are quickly shown two violas, and Kalina is measured against each. Elise and Naomi explore the music books, finding some for a few of their favorite soundtracks. We wonder if they would be good to think about. Elise and Naomi start to get a little bit too active for a music store, though, so they begin telling stories to each other. Thank goodness. We get everything we need, I fill out the detailed form and agree to care for the instrument, and we're on our way.

After acquiring the viola, since we are out anyway and there is a frozen yogurt shop nearby and we've had no frozen yogurt probably since last summer, at least as a group, and it's nearly snacktime, and it's cool enough we can easily eat in the car, we...you guessed it...had some frozen yogurt. The kids were amused by the fact that they weren't allowed to approach the toppings bar, and I had to explain, in my most blame-free, diplomatic tone, of course, that not all kids are clean and tidy when it comes to yogurt toppings. Kalina chooses a yummy-looking watermelon and pineapple sorbet combo, and Elise and Naomi both opt for cookies and cream. The each try a little of my favorite, pistachio. Their creations are variously topped with gummy frogs, Nerds, and mango poppers. 

We enjoy our yogurt in the car, and Elise names her gummy frogs John and Trissa before eating them. When we arrive home, we read a chapter of Peter Pan before I send everyone off to presumably do their own thing. Kalina digs around on the bookshelf for the next Harry Potter, and Elise tells me about a hanging decoration she's planning to make using the extra stones from our stepping stone project. Naomi is bored. They popcorn in and out, jolting me out of any concentration I'd gained every 2 minutes or so. Clearly, this was not going to be a highly productive day. But it's summer, and sometimes these scattered, unplanned, unproductive days are just what we need. Just not too many of them in a row...

Meanwhile, my freelance client keeps. sending. notes. about work that needs to be done. It won't stop. This was all day yesterday, too. Everybody needs support, all the time, immediately.

When you are a cat in our house, you
get covered and read to while you nap.

At 4:58 I realize it's finally quiet with some promise of it remaining quiet for more than 2 minutes. The older girls are upstairs and Naomi is drawing happily. Then I hear Matt's car door slam, and he jolts in the door with stories. I realize I have a conversation in front of me, music practice to supervise and supper to get so I give up on the idea of getting more than a smattering of computer work done. It'll have to wait until late tonight--not ideal, but I'm really, really used to it.

After chatting a bit with Matt, I tackle piano with Naomi, for whom the instrument was proving difficult while her brain was fully occupied by learning to read. Lately, however, she's been laser-focused (when she's actually playing and not distracted) and is zipping through her books. I've noticed this with the other girls, too--their music-reading skills dwindle when they're working really hard on reading, but then pick up again when they're comfortably reading. Naomi still likes me to be with her for moral support, plus she's really still learning. Since their lesson was just the day before and all her pieces are new, she needs me the whole time, but by the end of the week, she'll be fine on her own. She also has been enjoying noodling around on her own, and playing old pieces.

Naomi draws some more while I chop veggies and put pasta on to boil and then I send her up to round everyone else up and tell them it's dinnertime. Elise comes right away and fills me in on the past hour while grating Parmesan cheese for me. She's been singing lullabies to Poppy, and working on the craft project she told me about earlier, using the broken stones from the stepping stone project. She's gluing broken halves together, and then hanging them from a popsicle stick frame to make a hanging decoration. It sounds really cool. 

The rest of the family trickle in. They are surprised to see that there's not food ready to dish up, despite the fact that I'm trying to train everyone that dinnertime means finishing helping getting dinner, not necessarily seating down to a fairytale feast that has magically appeared. We divvy up the last-minute jobs, which they are at least well-trained enough to actually do without much of a fuss, and are able to well, even if they sometimes choose not to out of spite. It's only taken, oh, say, six months. Naomi folds the napkins to look like bunnies. 

The older girls heartily dish up plain pasta for themselves (but at least it's whole-wheat!), along with garlic bread and strawberries. Naomi opts for garlic bread and strawberries--pretty typical. Towards the end of the meal, Matt ropes them into doing a short Spanish lesson, which they all gripe about with gusto, which annoys him no end (I totally understand--this occasionally happens during school, too). I keep every one of my thoughts to myself, grateful that he's the one pushing this through and not me, and grateful that it's getting done, and grateful that they are actually picking it up, and also grateful that I'm picking it up while I start the dishes. And grateful that they're hearing the message of, "Stop whining, this is not the end of the world unless you make it be" from someone other than me.

After dinner, we usually take a long walk as a family, or occasionally play a game. Our walks usually end up strung out, with either Elise and Naomi running ahead, or Naomi and I lagging behind, or Kalina and Matt in earnest conversation about something super-interesting, or any other combination. Naomi likes to tell fill-in-the-blank stories, as she calls her homemade, on-the-spot Mad Libs, or Fortunately-Unfortunately stories, which always end up taking us to other planet and/or getting drenched in endless rain. We often to walk to the "origin," which is where the girls think all the crinoid fossils in the stream originate before getting washed down. We have found some nice ones in the bank there, but I'm pretty sure they're elsewhere, too. The girls are usually prepared with wading sandals, and occasionally nets and buckets.

This night, however, it's raining and, besides, there's a lot of music practice left to do, so we focus on finishing up. They all enjoy their instruments, but not the practice, so there's a lot of dawdling. I start with Elise.

Elise is thoroughly enjoying her voice lessons and is doing very well, possibly fighting Matt's genes as singing does not come naturally and she was not blessed with perfect pitch, through no fault of her own. Although she's only had a couple in-person voice lessons in addition to months of virtual ones, I can tell she's grown a ton, both in her abilities and her confidence, and she's sounding great. But she'd still rather play with kittens and chat with me than practice. Still, we make it fun, especially since she's excited about her new piece. I play along with her to help her with pitch-matching and to help her stay on task, social creature that she is. 

Elise and Naomi are then tasked with getting ready for bed. Naomi usually accomplishes this task in record time. Elise usually has too many other things to do.

It's now Kalina's turn to try out her new viola. It's bigger, so we discuss whether or not to put on tapes for her fingers. And we admire the brand-new, shiny rosin it came with, and she fits on the nice, new shoulder rest. She hardly played the viola in the store, probably being shy of playing in front of the person helping us. So she's absolutely delighted when she hears the richer, deeper tone of a larger instrument, and even more happy to hear that the next size up will be richer and deeper yet. Although we have a new book for her--the book she'll use in orchestra this fall--she wisely decides that since her new instrument will take some getting used to, she should go back and play older, familiar pieces. Kalina doesn't need much help, so I finish cleaning up the kitchen.

Naomi is now finished getting ready for bed, so I make my way upstairs to read to her. We're reading through the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, which are great fun, albeit sometimes eyebrow-raising. Naomi's getting an education not only in which types of poor behavior annoy parents (super helpful, I've already seen improvement!), but also in parenting practices on the 1940s. I have to explain a few things as we read to clear up her occasional confusion. But the writing just sparkles, and we both get in a few giggles. Elise, who's heard them all before, is rereading them herself. 

Matt is reading The Hobbit to the older girls, which he tried to read to them a year or two ago. Kalina enjoyed it then, but Elise was quite scared and refused to finish. Now, they're both loving it. They always let the bunny out while they read, occasionally letting Posy in as well (but not Poppy, as Poppy wants too much to play with the bunny), and sometimes Elise crafts.

After we finish our portion of Hello Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, I help Naomi write in her diary. She's been keeping a diary since early May, and is tonight starting her second notebook, which she's torn all the used pages out of since she's had this notebook for some time. Although she occasionally writes her own entries, and does very well with them, I usually take dictation just to speed things up since it's bedtime. Every entry, she lists what she ate for each meal (which I find astonishing, given the fact that she doesn't enjoy most foods) and then something special that happened that day, which today will be the frozen yogurt. Tonight, Elise is in the room and comments on some of the things she writes in her diary, which never include what she ate. I succeed in smoothing this slight bit of snarkiness. Since it's her first entry in her second notebook, she wants to do the writing. She occasionally wants help with spelling, but I'm heading to the basement soon to talk via Zoom to a friend I'm doing a book study with, so Elise good-naturedly agrees to be available. Elise also volunteers to read the last half of the chapter we were on in Mrs. Piggle Wiggle aloud to Naomi. I remind them of lights-out time and pass out hugs, and then say goodnight to Kalina. It's about 8:30, which is perfect.

Naomi gets scared without anyone else in the room, so I usually require Elise to read with her booklight until she turns out her light, while trying to hide it from Elise that that's what I'm doing. I think she knows. Kalina does the same eventually, but often has to shower or practice her viola even after The Hobbit, plus I think it's good for Kalina to have a privilege that Elise doesn't have. Elise usually gets annoyed at having to read in bed starting at 8:30 or 8:45 or so, but I personally think she has it pretty good, and quite reasonable. And eventually Naomi won't be afraid anymore--Kalina grew out of it just fine. 

Kalina sewed this lovely sleep
mask because sometimes Elise's
headlamp is bright when Kalina
is trying to sleep. Hmmm...

Many nights, Naomi pops down for a second hug, Elise brings a kitten down just to say hi, and Kalina comes over to chat after viola practice. There's also often some whispering, giggling, and storytelling. This is sweet and usually doesn't get out of hand. Usually. Even with whispering and giggling, they're virtually always well-rested and good-natured the next day, so it seems as though there's not actually a problem. 

When I check on everyone at 11:30 or so (I had a LOT of work to do after my call), they're all in dreamland. Occasionally the older girls, and especially Elise, are not if I come in earlier, but we're used to the routine of just turning on the headlamp for 5 minutes and reading and trying again. Usually if I check on them 20 minutes after that, they're out. 

And that's a wrap! 

Pull on your adventure shoes

Naomi packed two essentials,
other than bunnies.

"We could almost camp this weekend," mentioned Matt. And it was off to the races. The whole trip felt like a whim, but considering we'd been half-trying to camp for a good year and a half, we pretty much had the routine down. In fact, we'd already booked campsites two other weekends, only to have our plans destroyed by reasonable threats of tornadoes. You just don't do that with small children.

On Wednesday, I hurriedly booked the campsite for Friday and Saturday, at a park I'd dredged up using a single Facebook recommendation. I googled exactly 3 dutch oven recipes and jotted down a quick grocery list. And I told the children. Whenever you tell the kids, you'd better be serious, because they don't let you take it back. Only more tornadoes could stop us now!

On Thursday, I gathered food, pre-prepped recipes with Kalina and started packing. On Friday morning, I threatened to cancel the trip if no one could possibly manage to please just pack a bag with actual clothes instead of all stuffed animals. C'mon, guys, let's step it up. Meanwhile, Matt spent a solid 4 hours gathering, inspecting, packing and preparing all the other equipment. I was pretty sure we'd forgotten something, but a careful review of our lists revealed we were at least close. Not bad for such a fly-by-night idea.

And after our previously scheduled meeting of Nature Club on Friday, we were off! Into Friday rush-hour traffic, but nevertheless on our way. In a party kind of mood, I let the girls gorge on Veggie Straws and granola bars the whole way. After all, I didn't really care if they finished their campfire hot dogs or not.

And we arrived! "This isn't at all what I expected," moaned Elise.

What?

Kalina hangs the clothesline
while her sisters simply perch.
Sometimes all you need is a
fence to perch on.

Having actually camped twice before (aside from various backyards), and only in large group campsites, the girls were not prepared for typical state park sites. We quickly realized they'd pictured choosing their own campsite from a large meadow, or under a few trees, not backing in to a small gravel clearing. Nevertheless, they joyfully alighted from the van and immediately began exploring the small area, climbing things, and engaging in all too many narrow misses with the plentiful poison ivy.

While Elise and Naomi claimed perches on the fence that was to keep them from falling over the steep dropoff below, Kalina, still jazzed about the whole idea of camping, actually helped, helping Matt pitch our giant tent while I settled the "kitchen." In between assignments, she eagerly posted the clothesline. And fetched water. And even carried stuff. Elise and Naomi mostly buzzed around like houseflies, but that was fun, too.

Plenty of help around camp!

Soon, we were roasting hot dogs for supper (Naomi decided her "outside of a hot dog" would be better with chips and ketchup inside), and then shortly after, roasting marshmallows for dessert. Elise experimented with a stuffed marshmallow recipe she'd found in her Ranger Rick magazine, and Naomi continually asked for more. The girls relished washing their own dishes in the chilly dishwater, or at least didn't complain, which is new for us.

As the sun set, we abandoned our marshmallows in favor of attending the ranger presentation on spiders. Although it was super dry (the weather, too), we nevertheless enjoyed our rustic wooden benches and watching slides projected outside under a darkening sky. Matt asked good questions, as always, keeping the ranger busy with her smartphone. By the time it was over, the fireflies were out.

The raccoons, meanwhile, had been busy throwing themselves at our hanging garbage bag, with some success. Their success would've been greater had their been more actual food scraps in the bag.

We made our last bathroom stop, brushed our teeth al fresco, and then waited while Matt set up cots. And waited a little bit longer. And then we settled in for a story and a good night's sleep. It worked! We were camping!

The next morning at 5:29, amid raucous birdsong, Naomi and I looked each other in the eye and mutually decided we'd try to go back to sleep. And then at 7:00, we woke up for real, and soon Matt, then Kalina, and finally our deep-sleeping Elise were rousted out. I was super excited to try out my first dutch-oven recipe, baked oatmeal. Kalina had measured the dry ingredients the day before, so I added just a couple of liquids and poured the mixture into the dutch oven. The coals, having warmed surprisingly fast, cooked our oatmeal by the time the girls and I had made the walk to the bathroom and back.

I prided myself on remembering chocolate chips for our topping. Naomi also added a little ketchup, and then a little more until it was just right. And then she actually ate it. Here we were thinking she was a picky eater, and as it turned out, she just needed a little more ketchup in her life. Lesson learned.

They all fit!

We'd brought Grandpa Tom's canoe, and wanted to take it out first thing. So we cleaned up the dishes. And got dressed. And put on sunscreen. And brushed our teeth. And melted down about something. And found all our gear. And packed food away from raccoons. And managed the fire. By 9:00, we were ready, and poor Matt had to shift his expectations for, "Let's get on the lake first thing!" But he survived.

The lake was tiny, but still and beautiful and full of life. We immediately zeroed in on goslings and on tiny frogs. In fact, I'm not sure Elise saw more than a few square feet of the lake in the first 10 minutes, her nose to the ground like a bloodhound seeking out anything slimy she could pick up or wallow in. I think we were all surprised when Naomi decided she wanted to ride in the canoe, despite having been informed that canoes are tippy. Secretly not wanting to let the shore go just yet, Elise graciously offered to let Naomi take her presumed spot. As shore patrol, I took my post by Elise, and alternately hauled buckets or watched for frogs as she carried out her studies.

In the canoe, Naomi shrieked only for the first 20 seconds or so, until she quieted into a calmly terrified state. And then eventually began to enjoy herself. Kalina, meanwhile, quickly learned principles of paddling and steering a canoe. She took to it like, well, a duck takes to water. And is now ready for a kayak, she tells us. After a while, we switched up seating arrangements, several times, until everyone had a turn doing everything they wanted to do--even me! By now, it was rather warm and the lake was getting busier--time to hit the trails.

A stream and a really long
crinoid fossil!

Since lunchtime was approaching, we tackled a smaller trail that we knew had a great stream access point, something that has become increasingly important lately. Naomi, Kalina and I shared the lead while Elise floated from snail to snail, admiring, naming, handling and subsequently "rescuing" each one. Each was precious, unique, and praiseworthy--a treasure, or a rare jewel. The hike was going to take three days.

We were able to convince Elise to speed things up with the promise of a stream, and fortunately the stream soon came into view. Naomi, increasingly adventurous, followed her sisters in and they all splashed around happily for a while. Kalina caught a crayfish and found her largest section of crinoid yet!

Kalina enjoying a camp lunch

All too soon, it was time to make our way back to camp and cook lunch and chill. I admit I was highly motivated to cook, if only to prove that you can actually camp and enjoy halfway decent food, too. We were soon chowing down on quite decent macaroni and cheese--even Naomi, once we pulled out the ketchup. In fact, the kids are still talking about that mac and cheese.

Elise pulled out her tooth!

It was around this time that Elise disappeared into the tent for a bit. She emerged a few minutes later with a big smile and a newly released tooth! The tooth had been loose for a while and Grandpa had said, a few days ago, that it only needed a few more days. Elise decided that the only thing that could make the camping trip any better would be to lose her tooth during it, so she pulled it herself. That's determination for you, right there. We put it in a baggie and, surprisingly, didn't lose it (again) before surrendering it to the tooth fairy herself.

The afternoon was spent embarking on a longer hike--one that was apparently out to get us. Naomi, refreshed and uncharacteristically gung-ho, proudly led the way for the first third. Soon, it became clear that only by walking nearly tightrope-style along the trail would be be able to avoid the poison ivy. This is when the hike became much less fun. The experience degraded even further when we started noticing ticks on each other. Lovely scenery, but we couldn't tear our eyes away from the edges of the trail and each others' bare legs. Fortunately, a stream halfway through kept our spirits up.

Chillin' with some bunnies
and a new favorite book.

In the stream, Elise found a jawbone with teeth! She wanted to keep it, but we reminded her that it's against the rules to keep anything from a state park. But, well, we all do it once in a great while, right? We ended up letting Elise remove one tooth as a souvenir. No sooner had she pocketed her treasure than Naomi's inner rule-breaker alarm sounded:

"Mommy, is it okay to keep things from state parks?" she worriedly questioned, confirming what she knew was true.

"But Mommy, Elise can't keep the tooth! She has to put it back! Elise, put it back!" We went on like this, with Naomi growing increasingly hysterical and Elise edging slowly away.

The decision hadn't been mine, but I was left to explain. Being a rules-follower myself, my answers were rather lame. Because we really should all just follow the rules, they're there for a reason and besides, then we all know what to expect.

Kalina's idea of relaxing: a
cot and a good book.

Soon, we needed to pull in the experts. I patiently explained the situation to Matt. In true Matt style, he fixed the problem in two seconds. Having Elise hand him the tooth (I'm amazed she trusted him at this point, but she did), he employed sleight-of-hand techniques worth of a magician to then quickly toss a piece of a stick far into the woods. Naomi's sobs abated immediately.

Unfortunately, he convinced Elise, too, who teared up as quickly as Naomi pacified. Fortunately, she's used to secret signals from me, being both a communicative and mature child, and soon thereafter Matt surreptitiously transferred the tooth back into Elise's hot little hand. Crisis averted, and Naomi can rest easy in her rules-following world a while longer, although I admit I'm still suffering a bit of cognitive dissonance over the matter.

Two little sweeties, after they'd been
scrubbed, soaped and inspected.

The hike dragged on. We finally made it back to the lake, where all three girls found fresh energy when it came to playing in a stream offshoot with a couple smaller children. After Elise, and then Naomi, took spills on the slippery rocks, we knew it was time to get back to the campsite. The next 45 minutes were spent on poison ivy and tick damage control.

And then another spectacular dinner! Despite pizza dough that didn't seem like it was going to cooperate, we ended up cooking up and polishing off two amazing dutch-oven pizzas. They tasted wood-fired, and restaurant-quality. We broke out another Ranger Rick activity at this point: filling in blanks to make our own spooky/funny adventure stories.

This shot only looks candid:
Elise is a pro at posing and
making it look natural (and
good!)

After a few good laughs and more campfire treats, and we raced down to the lake to try to catch the sun setting. We missed the actual sunset by seconds, having stopped to watch a deer watch us on the way. We nevertheless found a big glob of frog eggs, and then hustled back for the second half of a ranger presentation on snakes. And another night in the tent! This time we made it to sleep a little bit sooner.

I forgot one thing on this camping trip, and it happened to be the syrup for the hearty camp stove pancakes Matt whipped up the next morning while I trekked to the bathroom with the girls. They were still tasty with grape jam and/or leftover cherry pie filling from the campfire treats the night before. Powered up, we again headed for the lake with the canoe.

This time, Matt figured out how to get everyone but me into the boat--Kalina with a paddle, Elise with a net, and Naomi on Matt's lap. They chased frogs for quite a while. I got to be the on-shore frog-spotter. Then, after another hike down the nice hiking trail, and more fun in the stream, we had to break the news that it was time for lunch and tear-down.

Real mac and cheese, real
ingredients! And everyone
ate it! Super easy and so
fun!

As we hadn't initially planned on making it at the park until lunch time, we had to scramble a bit for lunch ingredients. Elise roasted the rest of our hot dogs, super annoyed that she had to cook them fully since we weren't quite confident in our cooler's ability to keep everything as cool as it needed to be, while everyone else began the process of packing up. Along the way we outlawed fence-sitting, since we'd made it this far with no one topping backwards into the "abyss." In the end, we pulled away with about 12 minutes to spare.

What an amazing weekend! I was impressed by the fact that all three rose to the challenge: Kalina really stepping up to take on some more grownup roles, Elise, um, just doing her thing, and Naomi trying some new challenges ranging from a different macaroni and cheese recipe to canoeing to leading the way on tricky hiking trails. Matt and I also felt a strong sense of accomplishment: not getting overly cranky (mostly), and planning a pretty awesome trip that will undoubtedly lead to more.

Boxes

Everybody moved into a new house
within days of moving into a new
house.

It's amazing how much of our life fits into boxes--and how much doesn't. Nevertheless, over the past year we crammed it all into boxes and a truck, and moved it all a couple hundred miles away. Now that it's been a year-ish, here's how that's gone:

First, Matt acquired a super-awesome dream job (second only to professional fishing, which wasn't available).

Then, we devastated told the kids. Number 3 was probably only upset because the first two were, but the news wasn't easy on anyone as it sank in. "Will I have a new Grandpa when we move?" Naomi asked in a tremulous voice.

The final step, then, was to actually make the move, the only fun part of which was picking out a new house. So that's what we focused on. Here was the (partial) list of demands:

Naomi making beds for her stuffies in
in the new, open space.

"Doorframes for climbing"
"A stream in the backyard"
"Climbing trees"
"A pink room"
"A tree swing"

And so on. Obviously, many of these would be beyond our (reasonable) control, and therefore our kids insisted they liked the old house better and never wanted to move. Great.

For the first time, all three girls began
sharing one room! They all still love
it.

Nevertheless, we took a house-hunting trip the only weekend it snowed that winter. The kids started calling it a "vacation" since we were traveling by car, staying in a hotel, swimming in a pool and eating in restaurants, and Matt and I were delighted to find that we'd kept our kids' standards and expectations so low that they entertained such a high opinion of a trip that was certainly no vacation. Fortunately, our realtor's stand-in (he was working with other clients) was a grandma who seemed to genuinely enjoy our kids, and even babysat them in the van for us while we quickly scoped out a house or two.

We soon noticed several themes: houses that seriously needed updates (wood you like a wood-paneled living room?) and houses that seemed to use strict fencing to carve out any yard they could in a sea of suburban backyards. Or they were just too far away from the rest of the city for this city-girl's liking. One may have fit the bill, but already had several offers, not to mention a potentially weird neighbor.

When life gives you boxes, make a
reading nook.

Bummer! So the next week, the girls and I stayed home while Matt did some solo house-hunting. A few phone calls later, we were bidding on a house I'd never seen in person, but in a neighborhood I definitely liked. Correction: with trees and a stream I definitely liked!

Apparently, a lot of others also liked the house/trees/stream, because if you believe the realtor(s) involved, several offers came in after ours. Nevertheless, we were first, and had a good story (three charming children to raise), so we won!

Six weeks later, we were the proud owners of two houses, and Matt moved in to house #2. The girls and I, of course dying to see our new digs, made a weekend trip to the area. It began with a huge thunderstorm and lots of traffic. Fortunately, the traffic ended--but not the storm. Our stream turned into a raging river (okay, pretty cool) and we could barely see the trees through the rain, so the weekend was hardly representative of what we expected our Kansas experience to be like. We camped out on the floor, ate from folding chairs in dimly lit rooms, tried to imagine where our furniture would go, and ventured outside whenever there was a break in the rain. I freelance wrote because freelance work is never convenient. We also ventured to a local indoor ferris wheel for some fun, and ate delicious barbecue.

Lots of help! Elise likes quick
transitions between biking
and not biking sometimes.

The girls were thrilled with the stream, the climbing trees in the front yard, the balconies and other structures to climb in the living room, the soft carpet, the cul-de-sac to bike in and the two playgrounds we could walk to when the weather would be better. In fact, as the weekend ended, they lamented having to leave, and very honestly felt torn in two for the next couple months.

Selling our house in St. Louis, while painful for at least four of us, nevertheless went as easily as could be. We sold it on Facebook, after two showings. The only hiccup (or maybe we should compare it more to a ruptured appendix for impact?) was that the rain that annoyed us on our trip to Kansas actually destroyed us in St. Louis. As near as we can tell, shortly after we arrived at our new home for a visit, rain started building up in our basement and turning into a small stream under our carpet. With Matt 4 hours away, I borrowed my dad's wet vacuum and started vacuuming up gallons of water. For hours. And the next day I did it again. It took us until the end of that day to realize that water was continually leaking into the basement. Fortunately, the buyer didn't back out and we were able to alleviate this and several other concerns. Whew!

Naomi covered whole sheets of
packing paper with drawings.

Meanwhile, Matt was getting the new house fixed up, with a few updates that would be miserable to try to do after we arrived and sleeping in the dog-hair-covered basement in the meantime. My job as a single parent for four days a week seemed a lot easier than that.

And it actually was. While we wouldn't have wanted the single-parenting arrangement to go on for too much longer, we actually survived the phase rather well. We held a movie night every week, stayed busy with activities, talked to Matt individually every night on the phone and did way fewer dishes. And we tried three new types of pancakes (the strawberry pancakes were pink!)! On the other hand, I got a bit tired of pancakes, quesadillas and pasta, and Naomi developed nighttime fears. Plus the water in the basement would've been a great problem to hand off to "the one that doesn't mind dirt and smells," at least for a few hours.

The move, while no picnic, also progressed smoothly. We arrived while the painters were still finishing, having convinced them that no, really, our stuff would be arriving the next day, but managed to kill some time, partly by watching a baby owl be taught to fly in our yard. So really, it was no trouble. The next day, our things arrived bright and early and were unloaded by afternoon. And the neighbors were nice, and not weird.

Ever since the first big move to North Carolina, I've noticed that it takes a year to move. You move in, you start to get comfortable, you start to meet people, and you start to finally feel at home. But it doesn't really gel until you re-move in (rearranging all the stuff you unknowingly put into the wrong places) and welcome a season for the second time. Matt didn't believe me, but I think our goals diverge sometimes.

Elise is queen of Paper
Mountain. She was annoyed
when her kingdom
was eventually dismantled.

To the kids, a year sounded unfathomable. And I get it--when you've only lived a few of them, years are a long time. It's like saying, "Kids, this will feel normal after about 1/6 of your life has gone by." For me, that would've been 6 years, and  I would've been less than thrilled.

So we began the long, slow process of unpacking and moving in, knowing that getting the stuff in place is only half the battle, but was one we could reasonably conquer. At first, the new house + tons of boxes and paper wrapping were such a huge novelty we needed little else to keep our minds and bodies occupied. The girls quickly moved into box homes, complete with garages and paper food, and cheered every time something familiar and loved was unpacked. Everyone helped with unwrapping, and especially Kalina, who really made a dent. We slowly figured out what new furniture we needed and what we could do without, so that by early fall we were finally done with most of our boxes and piles. Still, a year later, pictures are sitting around waiting to be hung and an entire room seems kind of up in the air, but that's what this summer is for, right?

And then we began getting to know our surroundings. Walks in the neighborhood, and occasionally even just walking out the back door, introduced us to tadpoles, turtles, fox kits, owls, herons, rabbits, squirrels, cool bugs, fish, snails and plenty of other wildlife, if not to human neighbors. We're still waiting to see a deer in our yard, and still hoping to meet kids in the neighborhood Kalina's and Elise's age (we've met two 4-year-old girls, however).

We admittedly haven't seen as much of the actual city and its attractions as we should have by now, not really being the city types. But we'll get there. We're enjoying barbecue for sure, though. And we've had our share of setbacks: such as the water in the basement, twice, two weeks after we had our fluffy new carpet installed, and when water had apparently never made it into the basement before. Bummer. We added berry bushes and fruit trees, replaced a light fixture and our garage doors (plus added an opener!), painted, replaced the basement carpet, and made a few other improvements to the house. Like a sump pump.

Kalina's box home has two
levels.

To help ease the potential of too much boredom, loneliness and disconnectedness we were all likely to face, we signed up for a million activities. Homeschool co-ops, ballet, gymnastics, AHG--you name it. This possibly wasn't the best idea, and at the same time, the girls will actually have friends to invite to their birthday parties. We've also enjoyed lots of new experiences we wouldn't have even known about otherwise, from puppet making to alpaca farming to an actual PE class.

Even with all those activities, it's Naomi who's made most of our friends for us. Seeing as she's the only one of us with few enough inhibitions that she's willing to walk up to any random girl at the park and hand her a dandelion to blow, for instance, we can trace at least three family friendships, plus one more in the works, to the social skills of our four-year-old. Maybe the rest of us should learn the lesson that any random stranger can be our new best friend, as long as we give them a hug and a clover flower right off the bat.

We've enjoyed Kansas' relatively big skies, farm influence and the fact that even the teenagers are polite. And we like being in the west. The nature is everything we hoped it would be with a yard like this, and it's been a happy year despite all the change. Or because of it? Depends on who you ask... :)

Escaping the chaos of moving. Half a
couch is really all you need, right?

And here we are, a year later, still thinking a lot about people and experiences in St. Louis. But our backyard is broader, and so are our horizons. And thank goodness that first year is over.