Trust and Respect

It's our parenting mantra. Trust the children to make the right choices and respect their decisions. I'm not always successful at it, but it is certainly the way I aspire to raise my kids. And I really love it when I get to see glimpses of my success.

I'm a huge fan of music of most kinds, as are Claire and Ben. I encourage them to listen to and appreciate music, whose lyrics I rarely censor because I don't believe in censorship. An artist puts lyrics to music in a way that describes what is meaningful to him or her, and I like to choose for myself whether or not they are appropriate. When a song comes on the radio that has a "bad" word in it, Claire just doesn't sing that part. Her choice.

With that in mind, HBO recently aired Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Concert, and neither the kids nor I had ever seen her perform. I prefaced the watching by telling them I did not know what the show would be like, but considering her provocative nature, we might have to turn it off. As the show progressed there were a lot of "wows" and "she's so weird, but I love her music" comments being passed around. I have to admit her whole sexual persona was a little embarrassing, in the way in which, at age 12, your DAD takes you to see Saturday Night Fever because you begged and begged and then you have to sit next to him during the sexy parts. Things were edgy but fairly appropriate until Lady Gaga came out wearing a see-through mini plastic dress, complete with bikini underwear and taped nipples, with a plastic nun's habit on her head. Ben looked at me and said "Okay, that's enough for me" and left the room. Claire and I almost made it through that song too, until we were overcome by gyrating pelvises and decided to shut her down.

Looks like I've been fighting the good fight. Good job Mama. For those of you who question my choice to let them watch Lady Gaga in the first place, just suck it :)

'Round Here

Despite our recent illnesses (knock on wood, I'm the only one who hasn't gotten sick), we've been having a little bit of fun.

Mark and buddy Jon have been spending some time oaring on our small, local rivers. Early spring runoff is about the only time there's enough water to actually float on them.

Here's me and my girl before she headed out to play the flute in her Spring concert. I wasn't able to attend, but I saw the video footage and they sounded fabulous.

After recovering from a lengthy illness, Ben rallied on Friday to take home a 2nd place ribbon in his school's first-ever chess tournament. It was also crazy hat/hair day, so he's sporting his favorite zombie cap.

One more week until Spring Break. We don't have plans, but I'm itching to get out and take a long walk somewhere warm. It may be time for a photo safari to spot buttercups and grass widows in the coulee country.

I Hate This Part

Welcome to the germ-laden Wildung house, specifically this green chair in our living room where poor sick Ben has been camped out since Thursday afternoon fighting a relentless fever, sore throat, congestion, and head and body aches.

I hate this part about being a mom. I hate the constant worst-case-scenario visions in my head, but as the days go by they increase in volume. There's been a confirmed case of H1N1 in a nearby town that led to the shutdown of their school district.

I know he will be fine. But if that fever doesn't break tonight...

"Mom"oirs

This kid, he's a funny one.

Claire and Ben and I were shooting the breeze one day after school last week. Claire was telling me that some kids have recently been getting hurt in PE because they've been doing more rigorous activities. I told her that I wasn't surprised by that, that sometimes middle-schoolers challenge themselves too much while their bodies are still clumsy and awkward and they end up getting hurt. To which Ben responded "I have a feeling Claire will get drunk in college." Hmmm.

Winter

These are the days I hate in the Northwest.
Gray and brown. Not a drop of sunshine.
Everyone bundled against the bone-chilling cold.
Temperature right at freezing with fog in the air that I know will make slick driving later on.

So we go to the mall and put $2.00 in a machine so the boy can withstand the winds of a hurricane, as if we're not even tired of the weather.
It's warm in the mall and there's gluten-free pizza to eat.
But thinking of hurricanes makes me homesick.
Yes, we had to criss-cross masking tape on the windows in case the wind got out of hand, but at least we knew the eye was coming and more often than not a wave of beautiful weather when the storm cleared.
I wonder if Ben has the South in his DNA.

Art Share

Art journal

Artist Trading Card

Dribbling

Ben's 7th birthday party

Outside in January

A little tree house action going on around here yesterday.
BECAUSE IT WAS 50 DEGREES!
It's just a tease; we'll get snow again by the end of the week.
These kids weren't going to miss an opportunity to snatch some warmth.

Check out these models of cooperation.
I found them playing at my table.
Does anyone know who they belong to?

Say It Like It Is

I had a brief conversation with his teacher today and she shared a little story.
It seems that the kids were in line for something and not behaving, so she was giving them a reprimand. To which Ben said "Excuse me. Can we go to art now? I think we've done enough talking."
I love it when I get glimpses of him that I don't normally see.

Hello Christmas Busyness

Here's my little elf helping me with the Christmas decorations.

And here's my little contortionist.
He's always twisting his body in weird ways and has done so since he was a little guy.
It would not be uncommon in our house to see him playing his DS this way.
This is a yoga pose called Plow.
No problem for him.
No problem for Claire.
Mark came close. Very close.
I didn't even try.

The 12 Tags of Christmas, Day 4.

Day 5.

Day 6.

With all the other crafting going on around here right now, I am unable to keep up on a daily basis (who knew this work thing would take so much TIME!), but I am OK with that. (I'm not REALLY OK with that, but this blog post is serving as a little pep talk to myself to GET OK with it)!

Hello Winter

Look what we woke up to this morning.
Completely unexpected.
Welcomed with open arms in this family.
Both kids are snotty, so we had an impromptu sick day.
Everyone needs a little rest.

I get to stay home too.
Art and laundry are my mantra today.

Right Now

Our beautiful curly-haired Claire.
Learning to play the flute.
She recently finished a season of middle-school volleyball.
Totally loving books right now.
Sassy-mouthed and sweet, this one.

Hello little cute man.
He's all Lego Star Wars, all the time.
Unless it's Xbox 360.
Thinking he might want to give Karate a try.
His mouth is a tangle of too big and baby teeth right now.

My mountain man.
This pic is pretty representative of what he's been doing.
Hunting.
And working hard at the sequencing core.
And getting freakin' amazing at Sudoku.
And turning forty-five. Yikes.

And me, the mama.
I'm just swinging along, working and taking care and making art.
Nesting into my new home.
Experiencing my first root canal.
Steering clear of cancer for another year.

Life is good.

'Tis the Season...

... of waiting, and waiting some more, and each time we think we're getting closer, more waiting. My irritation in waiting has been compounded by the fact that the farmhouse is really acting up: never-before-seen-problems with the water have arisen, forcing us to run into the snowy yard in our bathrobes to reset the pump to take a shower; lightbulbs are burning out left and right and the heating coil in the dog's water is kaput (I believe these are due to some kind of power surges in the electrical "system", if you can call what's been done to this house in the name of wiring any kind of "system"); the insulating pane on the back screen door, which has been holding on by one last spring for the past many years, has given up, and now each time I open the door I am greeted by an icy whoosh of air. And you know, we're not going to fix anything because we're kind of pissed off, and hey, we're leaving, but we're not exactly sure when, so guess who's suffering from their own spite? There's a lesson in here somewhere.

But we had an excellent Christmas, quiet and family-filled with some very happy children. Claire received American Girl Doll Kirsten, who was the source of many a pre-Christmas meltdown in our home because she was being retired this year and if we didn't have to save to buy a stupid house and if her parents weren't so anti-consumeristic would be hers to cherish forever. I love laughing on the inside at such emotional outbursts; I know I already bought the freakin' toy and it's their bad karma in being so shallow and materialistic that's causing them such torture. But I totally remember being a kid and spending hours drooling over all the toys I had to have in the Sears catalog, so I wasn't totally without compassion for her.

Then we miracled Ben with Lego Star Wars for the xbox, which he was convinced did not exist and would require the purchase of a wii so that he could be a happy boy. Thank you internet. Got out of that pickle for $7 plus shipping and felt a little less pinched at spending the money for his sister's doll! I took him on a hike with me to the mailbox yesterday for a little vitamin sunshine; he's been glued to the tv since Christmas day and I was starting to feel a little guilty. But again I have some compassion. He's on Christmas break and enjoying himself, and I certainly wouldn't want some uninformed grown-up telling me to take a break just when I've gained four light sabers to secure victory in the battle of Dexter's Diner!

We're going bowling today and ringing in the new year quietly at home, although there are a few booze bottles with tiny amounts of liquid in them that we don't want to move. I finished my 12 Tags of Christmas Project and uploaded a photo of them to Tim Holtz for the grand prize drawing tomorrow. If you've got any luck to spare, please send it my way.

Have an excellent New Year's Eve.

A Christmas Pantry

I ran across this photo while cruising my blog list this morning.

Seriously?
Who DOES this?

Here's a much more practical photo.
One of my decorating elves rediscovering Comet,
the moose or reindeer (we can't decide).

And my other little elf, looking so beautiful and festive.

Have a great weekend.

Hello Monday

Unlike many people, I like Mondays.

It's my "gown down" and catch up on blogs day.
It's the day I make my grocery list.
It's the day I usually bake bread.
And on Mondays, there's a little bit of quiet at my house,
that is until I crank up the music,
which I inevitably always do.


Here's my girl with her pumpkin.
It turned out to be a cute kitty cat.
Not an ounce of horror in that one I tell you.


And here's the crew before heading to town.
We met up with some friends for trick or treating.
The boys ran full throttle to each and every house.
The girls walked nonchalantly far behind and talked.
We combed two neighborhoods and have plenty of chocolate.
And I've had my fill of Reese's Peanut Butter cups.

First Graders Are So Stinkin' Cute

Today I helped out in Ben's classroom for their Halloween party. The teacher let each student take a turn sharing what their costume was and why they chose it. One little girl stood up and said
"I am Robin Hood and I chose this costume because it was the only one for $9.95."
I love the brutal honesty of first-graders!

I'm mere hours away from the Design Team crop at Paper Pals tonight. It's been well over a year since I've scrapbooked with a group and I am giddily anticipating basking in all that creative genius. I'll (hopefully) be finishing my albums from Europe. And me, little thyroid-less, tired girl will be out past midnight. Woot! I hope I don't have to stop for a nap!

Happy Haunting!