Apple Picking

Sunday afternoon we made a random trip up to Niven's Apple Farm for some family fun and apple picking. The kids did the same stuff they did before but got to hang out with their daddy too. We skipped the tractor ride this time with great promises to do it later in October when we hope to return with friends. We picked 1/2 peck of mostly golden delicious apples ($5), bought 2 butternut squash ($2.75) and selected a pumpkin ($5) to start the great pumpkin collection of 2009.

The apples were a little bit harder to reach this time but we got to watch Mario show of his tree climbing skills. Seeing him up in a tree just tickled these kids and they kept laughing. It was a nice quick trip together.

Here's more information about Niven's if you are looking to visit: Nivens' Apple Farm - apples, hayrides, pumpkins, corn maze2.2 miles west of Moore, SC. from Hwy. 290 or Exit 63, 6.2 miles east of I-85 down Hwy. 290 toward Moore, SC. Phone: 864-574-8889 or 864-576-4195. Open: August 15th thru Thanksgiving (or until apples are gone)8 am to 6 PM. U-Pick apples, hayrides, School tours, U-Pick pumpkins, farm animals, corn maze, apple cider. Information from http://www.pickyourown.org/SC.htm.

Happy Fall!

Guess who got a haircut?

Yup. Wesley. This time a professional did the deed. I gave him his first haircut in July at my grandparent's lake house in Michigan. It went fairly well but for some reason on Saturday night I decided that we should let a pro take a chance at it with some very heavy instruction from Mama. It's a bit shorter than I'd hoped for but 1. he can now see, 2. Mario is a wee bit happier about it, and 3. it's still really quite long and cute.

Cost $9.
Time: 10 minutes.
Bribe: 2 Dum Dum lollipops.
Seating: on Mama's lap.
Screaming: none.

Signs of a good afternoon.

Glue, cardboard box leftovers, paper scraps and black beans = 2 HOURS of kid fun. I even got into a bit and glued right along with both kids. I was searching for something quick but fun and crafty to do with Clare this afternoon and found this list of 5 minute crafts. Viola! There are a ton of black beans on our floor right now that make us curse when we step on them with our bare feet but otherwise it's all good.

Clare and I snuggled on the couch and read her new library books. We ran into the Cooper Branch before getting Wesley and grabbed a handful of new books in a library trip that lasted about 7 minutes. New books make everyone happy. New story lines are essential to keeping the readers interested.

Clare agreed willingly to a hair cut! I took her out on the porch where she sat patiently and let me trim her hair. It is a bit shorter now but every inch I can manage to cut off means fewer screams when we go to brush it each evening.

Clare watered all of my plants outside. I filled up a gallon jug of water and she carefully poured the water into the watering can and took care of all of the plants. I'm totally putting 'water the flowers' on our responsibility chart because 1. I never remember, 2. all of our plants die, and 3. she loves doing it.

too tired to blog.

i had it on my agenda for this rest time period today but i don't really have the oomph.

while outside sweeping the porch i heard screaming inside. i ran inside to find clare hysterical because 'something' was wrong.

i heard water running.

we ran into the bathroom to find the water on at full blast and an overflowing sink. water gushed out over the lip of the sink, off of the counter, down through the cabinets, on to the floor, into the linen closet and out in the hall.

i just finished cleaning that up and i'm trying to remember what it was that i was going to do today at rest time instead of blogging.

Documentation

There is a pile of boxes along my side of the bed. They are hidden from sight for those that just peek in the bedroom and for every day passing through. However I have to climb over them in the middle of the night to pee and I am burdened with their contents.

Of what? Pictures. Boxes of a few of the pictures that I've actually managed to printed out since our kids were born which is nothing compared to the ones living on our portable hard drive. They overwhelm me. The task of recording these two lives is daunting yet I feel the need to do something for them (and myself) to just remember.

In an attempt to just start doing something I printed off the pictures of Clare's birthday party. 145 prints. I gave a bunch away to other mamas, put a few in a pile to put in an album and the rest linger waiting for the final pitch (or to be sent to far away relatives).

I have a box filled with photo boxes to be filled with pictures. I have three empty photo albums stacked at the end of the bed that I bought to just put pictures in to get them in something. Now I also have a tiny bit of scrapbook stuff to try and maybe do but not too much or too crazy.

Somewhere along the way I realized that I actually enjoy the 1. taking of the pictures and 2. telling the story of the pictures. So my latest effort in the process of doing something to record all of these memories. Last night I put 1-2 pictures on an 8x8 page leaving most of the room for words. From there I can do the writing part I like, put on a few stickers, and move on to the next event. Apple picking needs one page now instead of 7 to hold all of the 47 pictures I took.

It sounds stupid but somehow just one page per event, the act of doing something rather than nothing, and printing very few pictures suddenly feels much more manageable.

Maybe just maybe I'll be able to get out of bed and pee in the middle of the night without risking life and limb in the very near future.

Monday Night Date

Tonight we watched Sunshine Cleaning for fun together after the kids went to bed. Thanks to www.insideredbox.com we found a free code to rent the movie and I made caramel brownies to munch on afterwards. These little bits of time here and there are helping us.

When we take these moments to do stuff together even within our house we tend to function better in our parenting roles. We can read each other better, we listen to each other better, and we are a more united force when dealing with the little people in our house.

On Friday night we enjoyed a simple dinner out, walk through the Greek Festival, live music with Coronas, and coffee at a grad school haunt. When we got home we booked our new sitter for two more just because dates to look forward to over the month. I have no idea what we'll do but I do know that the activities don't have to be grand as long as they put us together.

Fun stuff.

Weekly List

• Drove to Spartanburg, Charleston and Charlotte.
• Picked apples.
• Visited friends.
• Ate cupcakes.
• Visited with my cousins and Aunt Peggy.
• Made one decent dinner.
• Had 2 picnic lunches.
• Met a friend for a porch sitting date.
• Went on a date with Mario.
• Took Clare to Ikea.
• Stocked up on Wesley's goods at Trader Joe's.
• Resigned from Hallowonka.
• Scheduled surgery for October.
• Had Wesley's 2 year well check up.
• Spent a lot of time in my porch room.
• Went to Viet Pho for book club.
• Ran a lot.
• Hung two wall lamps in our bedroom.
• Put a magnetic board in Clare's room.
• Made green smoothies.
• Caught up with a mama friend at the park.
• Bought Clare light up Cinderella sparkle tennis shoes.
• Treasure hunted at Goodwill.
• Had a mother/daughter breakfast with Clare.
• Drank a gingerbread latte.
• Tried to cut out morning coffee again.
• Yard sale shopped alone Saturday morning.
• Noticed that our wind chime is missing from the porch.
• Introduced a bit of wheat into Wesley's diet.
• Switched back to cloth diapers.
• Put new child height hooks in Wesley's room.
• Indulged in Ikea cinnamon rolls.

Make this.

After many many lentil recipes gone bland Mario finally scored a decent, leftover worthy meal tonight.

What?

Pot Roast Italiano. It's good. It's easy. It's cheap. Make it tonite.

We served this with a side spinach salad and her cheesy orzo. Good stuff. Wesley can eat all by the orzo and my dad may even eat it if I omit the onions.

Date Night

I'm on the countdown when our new-to-us babysitter arrives! Mario and I have been a bit disjointed ever since our big summer separation and we are eager to start dating again. It might have been the distance, the end of summer, school starting, work, home improvement, 4 year old birthdays (pictures soon) and everything else that put our relationship on the back burner. Whatever the case, we are looking forward to tonight and many more future fall dates.

Our probable agenda: a walk along the river, dinner in the Vista somewhere, beer and people watching at the Greek Festival, and music/rooftop bar afterwards. Nothing fancy, just us together trying to connect.

Because we miss each other.

After school the kids and I headed east to Charleston to visit with Caroline and her crew. Somehow months seem to pass before we actually see each other in person with time to talk. To remedy the problem we decided to block off an afternoon to just visit. We sacrificed naps in the name of catch up chat and I left a better person because of it. Caroline has a knack for etiquette and for solving situations that I seem to get myself into. And funny...her answer usually has the following theme: be the bigger person and I know that you can do it. Thank you for that Caroline!
So what did we do with five kids? We let them eat ice pops, play in the back yard, took them to a park under the Cooper River Bridge and then out for dinner at Melvin's kiddo night. We left Columbia at noon and returned at 8:30 p.m. exhausted but happy.

Truancy Report

Today we played hookey from school and made a trip to Moore, SC. We visited Niven's Apple Farm with friends and enjoyed a lot of play time, a hayride, apple picking, visiting with the animals and a picnic. The kids (esp. Wesley) got really dirty, really sweaty and all had a blast.

Baby Cate sported her super stylish pink cowboy boots. She held her own with the other kids and made people smile at the sight of her fashion flair.

Clare and Wesley picked 1/2 peck of apples to bring home. We plan on taking some of them to Wesley's preschool so they can do apple prints, I'd like to make some crockpot apple sauce and the rest...who knows. We went much earlier in the season this year and the apples were easier for the kids to reach and pick themselves. Next time we hope to bring more friends to play and to leave with pumpkins too.

Clare and Alex had a few precious alone moments together away from their siblings in the apple field. Maybe it's young love? They both seemed to be awfully fond of each other.

P.P.P.

Post Party Princess

Kids are so much fun.

5:30 p.m.
The Fresh Market
Forest Acres, SC

I had a strong craving for pimento cheese this afternoon so I decided to take both kids to the store before heading home for the evening. Mario is in Athens right now so I had Clare hold on to my skirt to follow me and I held/restrained Wesley through the store. I ordered a single scoop of jalapeno pimento cheese from the deli for $2.56. I took the cheese with my free hand and made a dash for the cash registers up front.

Along the way I did a very human thing. I passed a tiny bit of gas. Farted. Tooted. Whatever you want to call it.

And then I heard Clare say "Wesley, this store smells like poop!" in her very best outside voice in the middle of the bulk foods section.

Mama's Rest Time Project

This is our side porch. For the 9 1/2 years that we have lived at this house we have never used this space. In my ideal world it is screened in and has french doors that open into our living room but for one reason or another that never happened. Enter Ikea and my power drill.

Yesterday afternoon I installed three Vagen curtain rods ($6.99 each) and one Dekka curtain wire ($4.99). Afterwards I hung four sets of white Lenda curtains ($15.99/pair).

Clare came running out and said "Wesley, Mommy made us a circus! Let's play at the circus!" Not exactly what I was going for but it is very tent-like and I prefer the cabana analogy. During rest time I can sit out there with the drapes closed, open up a window and be away without really being away. The laptop runs perfectly out there, I have enough room to do yoga with privacy, and I can still be on mama guard.

When the retreat/cabana is not in use I plan on using the curtain ties to gather in the drapes.

At night the space feels kind of dreamy. After a mama date at Cupcake last night to celebrate Clare's birthday, Mario and I enjoyed a bit of time talking in my new space.
Date night is back. Cabana style. I consider it a little 4th birthday present to myself.

Happy 4th Birthday Clare!

I hope all of your birthday wishes come true today.
Love and Hugs,
Mama

**Photo courtesy of an impromptu birthday celebration and goodbye at Aunt Mikie's yesterday afternoon. There will be a lot of cake consumed this week in Clare's honor! **

It's the little things.

Soon she may start writing it on the walls because she's run out of paper to sign. We've had letters in random order for awhile but this afternoon while I was making lunch she started showing Wesley her name and writing it out. I asked her teachers today if she had a name lesson and they said she had not had any writing lessons yet. Go figure.

I cried at Ikea today.

I lost my wallet on August 20 somewhere between a mama escape at Barnes and Noble, a trip to Publix and meeting a friend for pimento cheese fry solace and camaraderie. The next day I looked in the van, called all of the places I had been and even went back to search the parking lots.

Nothing. I put holds on my debit and credit cards with great hope that my wallet would appear from the lurking depths of the shrunken french fry incubator. After a few days I decided to go ahead and at least order a driver's license because I could do that online and Mario is kind of a stickler when it comes to rules and laws and stuff like that.

Another couple of days passed and I managed to spend a lot of money using Mario's debit and credit cards without one single person even checking the back of the card or asking for id or noticing that I signed my name as Gwen and not Mario.

At the end of August I got a letter from the credit card company saying that my card tried to contact me about my recent request and they could not reach me. I put the letter in my day planner.

On Friday I decided at Mario's urging to call the credit card company and ask for another card. (See we have all of these medical bills coming in from Clare's broken arm and before we just give our money to Cambridge Health Alliances we thought we should at least earn some points from those out of pocket even though we have decent insurance dollars, about $1,200 dollars worth so far.)

I got put on hold for over 20 minutes. I hung up.

Today I went to Ikea with the kids with receipts from my last gift card transaction. I hoped that they would be able to restore the $150 on my Ikea gift card from a recent return. No such luck. The gift card in my lost wallet was = to cash and there was no way they could trace it and reinstate the value. I was super sad.

Tonite I called Bank of America again. I was transferred all over the place until someone told me that someone called them from Publix on Trenholm Road because THEY FOUND MY WALLET AND HAD IT IN THEIR SAFE. The joy. The euphoria. The faith in mankind restored.

I called Publix, they confirmed this nugget of information at 9:55 p.m. I asked if I could come and get it. The store closed at 10 p.m. but the woman said that if I could get there fast she would bring it out to me in the car.

Vrooom. Vrooom. Vrooom.

They had it. Inside I found cash $$$, my Ikea card, my Starbucks card, a tea bag, my driver's license, my debit cards, my credit card, and our membership cards.

So tonight I'm a little bit giddy that this story has a happy ending. I wanted to go with Mario to Rosso to celebrate with an appetizer and a drink. Maybe I'll put that cash aside for a special date night treat when we have our next babysitter evening or maybe I'll just go out to Cupcake and celebrate alone.

Labor Day Weekend 2009

Is it possible that pre-school crud already invaded my system? Today I took a time-out and stopped my run early, huddled beneath the covers, and took a lot of motrin. Something has me feeling very foggy and off balance and I wonder if toddler germs are at fault. Symptoms: sore throat, head ache, nausea, and fatigue.

Follow all of that with copious amounts of binge eating. If it was chocolate and in our house I ate it this afternoon. I chased a post-Goodwill Sonic Reese's sundae (hey...I thought maybe my blood sugar was low!) with a package of cakesters, chocolate chips, Nibs, 1/2 a Hershey bar and brownie bits. Yluckh. I feel ick just looking at that list!

Anyhow, we are having a low key weekend in Georgia. The kids are enjoying time in the pool with Daddy and riding their bikes on the sidewalk in Neptune Park. The island is active with lots of guests but we are hoping to spend a bit of tomorrow morning at the beach before everyone else arrives. Before we go home I'd like to complete a solid run to work off some of the above chocolate I ingested, print off 2 prints for some new frames I got and do a bit of housekeeping to de-sand the house.

A modeling future?

Much to our surprise (and horror!) Wesley is doing the potty thing. Often. Frequently. Flushing the toilet with such vigor and enthusiasm I went into his closet and took out Will's hand-me-down pirate undies to check them out.

As soon as I can wrap my head around the idea we will transition to full time underwear and lots of back up clothes. I'm not there yet because I was enjoying the developmental lull but the idea of being diaper free sometime in this lifetime does hold a certain appeal.

Apple Brain.

I've got apples on my mind today. I'm guessing the feeling is here because of our unusually crisp weather that taunts fall at us even though it is a whole month until the fair arrives to summon the true start of fall.

So I called the apple farm. Nivens. The woman that answered the phone said they are open and picking already with hayrides starting on September 9th. She even offered a more important nugget of information: pre-school classes start coming on September 18th.

Clare and Wesley are both enrolled for five days a week of pre-school. I am happy to have the resource available but also decided last February that we would not send them every single day of every single week. They're little and we need lots of time to just spend in our pajamas, to visit the local stuff and to have some one on one time with Mama.

I'd like to give them each one morning alone with Mama to do something special each month. Clare could go to school while Wesley and I have our date. Wesley can go to school while Clare and I have our mother daughter date. I also don't want to avoid doing things because of school.

With all of that said, I think it's time to book a morning on our calendar in the very near future to head over to Niven's. This year at least I know what to do with the apples we pick.

Freeeeedom.

Wesley is in school.
Clare is in school.
Mama is happy.

I am on day two of free mornings and already I can feel a difference. Our household routine is firming up, the drop off schedule is coming together, and the kids are starting to re-program their clocks (at least until daylight savings time kicks in).

So...what goes on during those glorious 2.5 hours of freedom? Running, yoga classes, errands, meetings, and best of all: phone calls without interruption. Tuesday mornings I am enjoying a very intense yoga class, one that requires so much concentration on the different poses that it is almost impossible to let your mind wander off. I am finding that when it does start to go my body goes with it and I tip over or wobble.

This morning I went running around Forest Acres. What bliss to be outside and not tied to a treadmill. I need to map out a few routes in that area for variety and safety's sake. Otherwise it is nice to have the time (and gorgeous weather) to run. My goal: to maybe run a 1/2 marathon. I'm not excited about the actual race concept but I do like the idea of having a goal to work towards.

The rest of my time this week will be spent getting more information about a few home repair projects that we need to do, getting ready for Labor Day weekend at the beach, and working on a few Hallowonka details.

I am excited about: pumpkins/apples and fall festivals, cool weather runs, autumn beach trips, girl bonding weekends, making soup, Clare's birthday, writing letters, front porch dates with Mario, and continued home improvement.

I'm not excited about: possible surgery, the mold we found behind our shower, taking 2 kids to get an oil change, and finding homes for the last Tangerine Room remnants.