Another Noah Birthday

Noah's birthday came and went with relatively little notice in my life last week. It just so happened to fall on a Tuesday night...I have Young Women activities on Tuesday...and it just so happened that this particular Tuesday was also YW in Excellence-a kind of recognition night for the girls 12-18 in my ward (Church denomination). So poor Noah kind of got shuffled to the back of responsibilities that day. I did manage to bring a special lunch and eat with him at school. I did not find the time to cook a special birthday dinner so Dad picked up his favorite pizza on the way home from work. I did make a chocolate birthday cake with chocolate frosting. (Only those people who know how much I hate chocolate cake and chocolate frosting will appreciate the amount of self-sacrifice this entails.) I did not make it home in time to watch him blow out the candles. I did choose some fun gifts for him. I did not actually purchase them, but left that to Dad via his pizza delivery route. Fortunately, Noah is such a sensible, responsible, cheerful person that none of this bothered him in the slightest and he still had a nice day for his golden birthday. (He turned 10 on the 10th!)

For the sake of record-keeping, I'm going to acknowledge all things Noah at this age in his life.
Favorite color: blue
Favorite food: any type of seafood
Favorite flavor of birthday cake: chocolate, chocolate, chocolate (really, it's not fair that 5 out of 6 birthdays around here I have to make a chocolate cake.)
Favorite hobby: READING! (He reads an entire book almost every day)
Favorite sports team: BYU
Favorite sport to play: basketball
Best friend: Jaden
Current obsession: The "Warriors" series, and passing off all his times tables before anyone else in class
Favorite subject in school: P.E.
Quality in Noah that I am most grateful for: Responsibility...he's the only one in the house who doesn't need to be reminded to get his chores done, who never loses things, and who actually comes to me with school stuff that needs to be signed instead of leaving it to me to dig out of his backpack 3 weeks past the deadline.
Cool things accomplished this year: He earned a superior at AIM, his annual piano adjudication. He sang a solo (beautifully) in the Primary Program, he had perfect grades every quarter of the last year, he scored a touchdown at every single flag football game this year, he earned his Bear in Cub Scouts, he placed 3rd in high jump at his summer track meet

Tool Day

As I sit in my office typing, a whirl of falling leaves keep drawing my attention to the window. The fall in Utah has been spectacular this year. After living in a land of no Autumn for so many years it came as something of a revelation my first year in Utah that I had missed this season somewhere deep in my sub-concious. As papery, brittle leaves of yellow and bronze keep flapping across my peripheral vision, it feels like a metaphor for my life this week. I am blowing in so many directions that it feels almost out of control. But despite the wild nature of my frenzy, there is something beautiful in the commotion. Life is full; making goals, meeting demands, entering the fray.

Last month, I got the annual flyer/request for "Tool Day" from the Elementary School. Every year, they invite parents to come to the school and talk to students about their careers and tools of the trade. We have never participated, so guilt started prickling at the back of my neck. I began my campaign to get Cory into the school. As I prepared to discuss this with him, knowing how busy his work schedule is right now, I realized that I have a career too. In some twisted version of women's liberation reflex, I signed up to come share with 4 classrooms the tricks of my trade as a homemaker. Little did I realize that the week of presentation would coincide with the perfect storm of family events, rehearsals, and deadlines.

Still, I had made a commitment, so Tuesday morning found me gathering up my "tools" and heading down the hill to Oak Hollow Elementary. I shared with them the perils of a career in homemaking...no vacations, long hours, very few promotions. I let them handle the tools of my business...dust rags, measuring cups, first aid kits, checkbooks, the burgeoning calendar. And somewhere about halfway through my 2nd presentation, I realized something. I have been so caught up in the pressures and "busy-ness" of my day to day survival that I have begun to forget something important. I love my job.

Pinewood Derby

Last week was our annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. For anyone who has never had the privilege of participating in this boyhood rite of passage, I am here to tell you what you are missing.

1. 1 month to get the car finished, and yet 99.9 percent of the work gets done the night before.

2. Blowdryers running right up until the minute we leave to dry the paint job.

3. 8-year-olds executing feats of engineering around the level of the average M.I.T. student.

4. Fathers insisting that their scout really did most of the work themselves.

5. 30 families crammed around a 20 foot race track.

6. 30 dads discussing the finer points of "bracket-ology."

7. And the noise, oh the noise!

8. 250 lectures...MOM: You need to be a good sport even if you win/lose

9. WINNING CUB SCOUT: niener, niener, niener

10. LOSING CUB SCOUT: tears

11. 2 hours of chaos and pandemonium in order to watch your son's car race exactly twice for a total of 7 seconds.

12. Awards Ceremony..every car gets a certificate..even if it means awarding a prize for "most creative use of duct tape."

13. After the hours of work, and the meaningful award, car and certificate have disappeared--never to be seen again--within 24 hours.

14. Next year we get to make 2 cars.

What will I do when all my little cub scouts are grown? There's nothing quite like the spectacle of grown men competing vicariously through their sons. Despite the madness of the event, I really will miss this someday.

Feline-anthropy

Meet Grendel.

He is loyal, affectionate, and despite the threatening look of his underbite..gentle. I am the sun about which he orbits. He daily aspires to simply lay at my feet. When I say jump, he says, how high. He would throw himself in front of a bullet for me.

And here is Cheezit. He is superior, aloof and infinitely bored. He interacts with me on his terms only. He allows me to feed him and occasionally to pet him.

So why is it, I like the cat so much more than the dog? I guess I'm that girl who always liked the guy who wasn't really interested. Figures.

It also doesn't hurt that the cat is the only other creature in my home who can clean himself.

ADHD Awareness Week

This week CHADD is sponsoring an ADHD awareness week. Raising a child with ADHD is a trial not just because they have special and challenging needs, but also because the mountains of misinformation and misunderstanding that are out there to add an extra staggering burden. When I hear other mothers say things like, "My nephew has ADHD, but really his parents just don't ever discipline him," or "People just use ADHD as an excuse to medicate their children so they don't have to be a real parent," I want to cry. (I have heard both statements verbatim and in other variations more times than I can count.) I try not to be too sensitive, but there is an intrinsic loneliness that is part of my experience. If I told someone my son had Diabetes, they would respond with compassion; often when I mention I'm dealing with ADHD I can feel underlying judgment and cynicism. Can you imagine how you would feel if you said to someone, "My child has asthma," and they responded by saying, "Oh, that is so over-diagnosed?"

So, as a public service to all 3 of you who read my blog, I'm listing a helpful website to hopefully draw attention to this disorder and help you become more informed. Information is power! As many as 1 in 10 children is affected by this, so it wouldn't hurt for us all to learn a little something about it. CHADD is a non-profit organization committed to research, support, and understanding of children and adults dealing with ADHD. Do me a favor and look them up. http://www.chadd.org At the very least, keep an open mind, and try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. And the next time you come across a mom who mentions her struggles with ADHD, offer her support and sympathy without judgment.

Now I will step off the soapbox and return to my regular blog programming.

Finding Myself in the Living History Farm

The canning of peaches is officially behind me now, so I can devote a minute to something else...before I pick up the tomatoes tomorrow.

I still have vacation stories to tell. Shortly after our arrival in Des Moines, my mother-in-law took us to visit the Living History Farm near where she lives. It's an outdoor museum of agriculture that traces the history of farming practices from the earliest Native American settlements through the present day. Okay, I just read my last sentence, and I was asleep with boredom by the end. This place is the very opposite of boring. You walk along a loop of land where they have set up real working farms from different periods of history. There are actors at each place to tell you about their "lives" from other centuries and to provide hands-on opportunities. It's absorbing and fascinating.

In the 1850s farm, this man introduced us to his oxen...and their ear wax. Apparently this was used as an early form of lip balm. My boys especially enjoyed this particular nugget of information.

I was particularly affected by the 1900 Farm.

In 1904 my grandfather was born in Cardiff, Kansas. I have seen pictures of his family's farmstead from this period of time. To come across this tidy little barn and home at a museum in Iowa was both foreign and familiar.

And although I fear coming across as overly sentimental, I somehow felt more connected to both my grandfather.. and to my grandmother who was born 13 years later in Ponca, Nebraska but who must have lived a rural life very much like the one depicted in this faithful simulation.

Here in the parlor of the farmhome, it was hot and humid. I could almost imagine the life of my ancestors as they sat in here on a summer Sunday afternoon, swatting flies.

The kids enjoyed visiting the animals in the barn, and trying out the early farm equipment. We even walked past the stump where the "famers" had beheaded a chicken for their meal that afternoon. It's all very authentic. When we toured the home, the women were in the kitchen washing dishes with water they brought in from the well.

And though I'm grateful to live in a time of dishwashers and drive-throughs, I enjoyed finding myself in my own family past for a day.

And They're Off!

I still have a couple of entries to write about our end of summer marathon trip, but the kids all have started back to school now, and I thought I'd better post while the posting was good.

In other news, the peaches in our trees have started dropping onto the ground so it's back to Canning Season. So, yeah, I'm getting 4 kids back to school in the middle of a sticky peachy mess...I don't really recommend it.

Zachary started junior high last Wednesday.

He has to get up pretty early in the morning so that Dad can drive him at 7:00. This worked out fine for 3 days, and then the novelty wore off. This morning, his alarm went off at 6:30. At 6:45 I came in from my run and it was still going off...he slept right through. Still, he feels like pretty big stuff. It's a new school and he doesn't know a single person, but it hasn't fazed him. Hopefully he'll make some friends and figure out the ropes quickly.

Noah has a brand new teacher in her very first year of teaching. After meeting her at Meet the Teacher Night, I think this will prove to be both good and bad. Boundless enthusiasm...zero experience...you do the math.

Isaac started school 2 days before the rest of the kids. He and Anna both got into a Charter School, so it's a new school for him this year as well. Luckily, he's such a cheerful, easy-going kid that he has blended right into his classroom already. Although he misses his old friends, for now he says he likes this school better. I know many people have very strong feelings about public school/charter school debates so I choose not to address the hot-button topic for now. Anyway, it's only been a week, so I don't have a long enough experience to weigh in yet.

Anna is heading to her 3rd day of Kindergarten this afternoon. She lo-o-o-oves it! She has a hard time waiting all the long hours until after lunch when she can go. As for me. I have been strangely stoic about the whole thing. This has been the only time I have not cried after dropping off a Kindergartner on the first day. I think I've been anticipating this adjustment for so long that it doesn't seem that hard now that it's here. It helps that she's home with me half the day still. Cory called the first afternoon and asked if I was lonely. I told him she's so independent and quiet while she's at home with me, that it really didn't seem any different while she is gone. Maybe that's just because I'm so busy with peaches. And coming straight from vacation to back to school has made the whole experience a little surreal this year. Anyway, it's hard to feel very sad when she is so happy.