As I am starting to write this (at 1:23 pm), we have not yet carved any of our pumpkins, but I suspect that by the time I finish, we will have carved one or two. I have many things to do today and I'm trying to spread them throughout the day. So far today I have done these things:
- Emptied the dishwasher
- Done a load of the kids' laundry, start to finish
- Taken Teen B to Starbucks
- Helped Teen B finish his World Geography homework (he had to make a poster advertising the wonders of Alice Springs, Australia, don't ask -- I helped by drawing a picture of a kangaroo)
Still to do: language arts and science homework, helping the kids figure out their costumes for tomorrow night, this blog post, carving a couple of pumpkins, maybe a grocery store or Target run, making dinner, taking a walk, reading, writing, trying to get Rocket Boy to do a task or two. Sundays are busy days. The FlyLady says that Sunday should be "Renew Your Spirit" day, but she doesn't have teenagers.
On a slightly related subject, I calculated recently that out of the roughly 5345 nights of the twins' lives so far, I have been around for all but 9. During a few of the other 5336 I had the flu or was otherwise incapacitated, but I was in the same house and at least marginally involved in dinner time and/or bedtime. The nights I know I missed were 2 nights of Outdoor Ed in 5th grade, 2 nights of Outdoor Ed in 6th grade, 2 nights when I went to California for a wedding, 2 nights when I went to Boulder (we were living in California) for a work thing, and 1 night when we were visiting my niece and she took care of the twins while Rocket Boy and I went to see a musical and then we came home and went to bed in her garage spare room and didn't see the twins until around 10 am the next morning.
Oh, and one night Teen A went to a slumber party. But we still had Teen B with us. Am I forgetting any other nights? A few times I probably got home from an event after bedtime, but not many. Usually, if I stayed out late, Rocket Boy let them stay up until I got home, even if it was an hour or more past their bedtime.
Rocket Boy has missed SO MANY of those 5345 nights, being in St. Louis for the past three and a half years, plus various work trips, job interviews, etc., in earlier years. I know it's terrible to say this, but I wish I'd missed a few more of them. I've always been so jealous of people whose parents happily took the grandchildren for regular weekends.
Even writing that, I feel guilty. I'm sure now they'll be in a fatal accident on the way to school tomorrow and it'll be my fault for wishing I'd had a few more nights off.
But this comes up when I start feeling like a bad mother for failing to cook dinner or getting mad at the kids. 5336 nights I've had to do this, so far. Surely that kind of consistency counts for something, even though I'm not perfect.
Also, I am tired of it. I am ready for them to grow up.
Almost ready.
Of course, once we got to the Cutthroat Cafe, Teen A decided that he would have a cold ham & cheese sandwich instead of a tuna melt. He proclaimed it delicious and asked me why my ham & cheese sandwiches are never that good. I pointed out that the sandwich was made with American cheese (I use Havarti) on what looked like Wonder Bread (I use Rudi's Organic Multigrain Oat bread), and the ham didn't look very high-class either.
Then we drove on to Alma, stopping at Al-Mart to get snacks and buy Teen A a coat! He needed a new winter coat, so we bought something called a "Storm Defender" (by Carhartt, which Al-Mart specializes in). Worn over a hoodie, it should work as a winter coat, especially considering that he is rarely willing to wear a winter coat. Then we went to the cabin and hung out for about an hour. It was chilly, but not too cold, starting to cloud over. Some leftover snow on the ground. Rocket Boy hadn't planned any projects, so he did a little dusting. Teen A sawed some branches off a fallen tree nearby (just to have something to do), and I walked down to the beaver ponds, which were almost frozen over.
Then we drove back to Fairplay and swam in the pool at the rec center for an hour, after which we had an early dinner at the Mexican restaurant that's taken over the Brown Burro (Casa Sanchez). And then we had a nice drive home, returning around 8 pm.
Now it's 2:50 pm and we have done our science homework (this is a joint effort, since the twins have the same science teacher, albeit at different times). We have not yet carved a pumpkin, though -- better get on that soon.
Well, of course, I do know why they don't adopt it -- most states are trying to restrict voting, not encourage it. But more liberal states should try it. Even Utah does it this way.
I filled out my ballot first and then gave Rocket Boy advice on how to do his, even though we don't agree on everything. We respect each other's differences, more or less (of course, it helps that there aren't too many of them). I said things like, "I voted for A, but you'll probably want to vote for B because of XYZ." I think we voted the same on everything except that I ended up voting for a library district and he voted against it, and he voted for psilocybin legalization and I voted against it.
Then I drove both ballots to the closest dropbox, and yesterday I got an email from Boulder County Elections saying they'd received my ballot and would let me know as soon as it was counted. I love voting in Colorado.
The book we read was a ghost story, The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, and to my surprise, two of the book group members really liked it. They found it just the right amount of spooky (I actually thought it was a bit depressing).
The third member of the group had accidentally read The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John, which is about four women who work as shop clerks in Sydney, Australia, in the 1950s. When we began talking about the book, she mentioned that it had reminded her of a book we read earlier in the summer, A Summer Reunion by Fanny Blake, in which four former friends travel to Majorca. Thinking of The Woman in Black, I said, "How could that possibly have reminded you of this book?" We all had a good laugh when we figured out the problem.
Next month we are going to read The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty, and I can see how I might mix it up with something else, because there are actually a lot of novels out there with rabbits in the title. We read Bunny some months back, and there's another new book called Little Rabbit, and I see on Amazon there are a few books with the words "Rabbit Hole" in their titles. Maybe I should read Little Rabbit instead, oh, but I see the library doesn't have it yet. May just have to read the right book.
One more day of fun and games; then comes Serious November.
OK, it's 4:20 pm and we haven't carved a pumpkin yet NOR have we done language arts. The time has come for both.
And now it's 6:37 pm and all the homework is done, plus Teen B and I have paid a visit to Target to look for a Halloween costume -- but alas, there are only small children's costumes left. We will have to kluge something together for him. But we have wigs and such -- I think it will be all right.
I don't think I'm going to carve a pumpkin tonight, which means I will have to do them all tomorrow, in addition to cleaning and meal planning and grocery shopping. But it's OK. It will be Halloween and I will be happy.
One fun thing I did this year was treat myself to some new Halloween children's books. From Abe Books I ordered old library copies of The Vanishing Pumpkin by Tony Johnston, The Witches' Supermarket by Susan Meddaugh, and Harriet's Halloween Candy by Nancy Carlson. Lots of fun, and great additions to our collection. We feel as though we're missing some books: where is Max & Ruby's Happy Halloween? We used to read that to the twins. Maybe I'll have to buy it next year.
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