Hair!

I got a haircut! This morning I donated 10 inches of hair to Locks of Love. I didn't realize it ahead of time, but that made my haircut free (except for tip, of course). Free is how I feel...free of all that length heating me up and weighing me down. I like having long hair, but it was really starting to get to me in recent months.

Xander said I looked beautiful and Erik said I was pretty, so there was a good reception at home. Nick didn't mention it. ;)

here's the new cut

And here's a fun hairstyle from the past:

I can't believe I bought hair gel for the boys. I must have forgotten that food really works the best when you want your hair sticking out at all angles.

Xander has been taking lots of pictures. His new, sturdy children's digital camera arrived.

Yesterday and today, he did the following:

• listened to lots more of The Hobbit
• learned three new Spanish words and listened to El Gato Con Sombrero Viene De Nuevo again
• listened to the fable "The Wolf and the Kid" and narrated the gist of it back to me
• watched a great short film called Paddle to the Sea (based on the book of the same name) and watched me place a model clay canoe on the appropriate spots on the map as Paddle journeyed across the Great Lakes and into the sea
• listened to the folk song "The Three Ravens" many times
• heard A.A. Milne's "Summer Afternoon" a few times and recited the first line several times from memory
• listened to the first half of the Viking explorer story in This Country of Ours
• drew a picture of something that happened in that part of the story in his My America binder
• played on the playground with several friends
• exercised a tiny bit outdoors
• went geocaching with Erik
• took pictures with his camera
• watched Sid the Science Kid on PBS
• watched cute animal videos on YouTube (note: YouTube's safety feature hides inappropriate comments but does not edit out, say, fishing videos where the man fishing yells an expletive or two about his potential catch)
• recited the two pledges (United States and Texas)
• read the latest Lego Club and Lego Club Jr. magazines
• showed me that he could read a page of Frog and Toad Are Friends pretty easily (to satisfy my curiosity)

Mom-Goals This Week

Last week's goals:

Personal

1. Memorize 1 Peter 1:3-4. {Not done, but I can recite 1 Peter 1:1 and maybe 1:2. :)}
2. Run 5 miles this week and take a long walk one day. {I think I ran almost 2 miles and took a short walk.}

Marriage

3. Start to use Cozi as our family calendar. Transfer appointments and events.

Children/Homeschooling

4. Schedule Xander's tonsil removal surgery. {Doctor was out of town and we thought we were leaving town before we could get it scheduled. I'll be trying to schedule now that we have a postponement.}
5. Get Xander a digital camera.
6. Start reading aloud The Hobbit in the morning.
 
Service/Family/Friends

7. Finish my first Mother Bear Project bear.
8. Throw a family birthday celebration for Erik's birthday.

Business/Writing

9. Write three Homemaking Cottage articles for September. {But I still have two to do! I need to get my act together.}

Financial

10. Call insurance company. {Aaaaaahhhhhh! Why haven't I done this? I always forget. Maybe because I want to. Putting it back on the calendar.}

So I got half my goals completed.

10 Goals For This Week:

Personal

1. Go to church on Sunday.
2. Run at least 5 miles this week.
3. Get Locks of Love hair cut.

Marriage

4. Have another wine tasting and game playing night.

Children/Homeschooling

5. Schedule Xander's tonsil removal surgery.
6. Finish the first chapter of The Hobbit.


Service/Family/Friends

7. Finish my first Mother Bear Project bear.
8. Call both my mom and dad this Sunday.

Business/Writing

9. Write two remaining Homemaking Cottage articles for September.

Financial

10. Call insurance company. !

Yesterday was a Day Off...

Yesterday was a Day Off for the most part. Xander journaled a lot. We went to Half Price Books to sell a bunch of ours and we ended up spending almost as much as we earned (of course). I told the boys that if we earned money from our books, we could each pick out something new. Xander picked an Obi Wan Kenobi figure, Nick attached himself to a Train Stories chapter book, and I bought Hal Higdon's Run Fast.

By the way, I am never selling at Half Price Books again. We had a decent couple of boxes filled with books, children's DVDs, a children's phonics program, and a computer game and we got $12. I could have made more (I think) selling through Amazon.

Nick has been choosing our silver serving ware to drink "special" ice water and orange juice drinks

Xander labeling what Nick drew in his journal; it's a battle droid (I had to help with the spelling)

journaling together

journaling together without the blur

Last night, I left for my knitting group with a Target stop beforehand. Yeah. I never made it to knitting group. I picked up the remainder of what I think I and the boys will need through the fall and winter season. Minus cold weather necessities if they ever do become necessary. We have jackets and thin gloves and scarves and I can knit up some winter hats if we need any due to head growage.

It was a big total at the end of the night, and I always feel sick to my stomach when that happens, but I think I got good, reasonable items.

For me:

• two tiny composition books for to-do lists that fit in my pocket
• a pack of my favorite Pilot pens because these blue Bic ballpoints are driving me nutty
• a pair of running shorts that fit and don't ride up (noticeably)
• a sweat-wicking running shirt - this has seemed more and more like a necessity as I run in 100 degree heat
•  pair of flats that match my new (unreasonable because it doesn't match anything else in my closet but nice-looking) black and silvery baseball shirt

For Xander:

•  a 7-pack of thin black ankle socks to take him through the fall and winter
• a Crayola Star Wars Story Studio pack that cost $3 due to being on sale and using a coupon that came attached to the 7-pack of socks above
• two durable but thin binders for his Art and Writing subjects - should last us years

For Nick:

•  a large pack of white-and-gray and white-and-navy-blue socks to take him through the fall and winter (now the boys' socks will be easily distinguishable from each other in the wash, which matters only because their feet are different sizes)
• a cheap pair of tan athletic pants

Oh, yeah, for Erik:

• a Snickers bar on sale (plus an extra for me)

Once at home, we ate our Snickers bars. Erik played a game on his iPod while watching the Democratic National Convention. I knitted on a little monster destined for Xander while watching the same. I don't know how most of the RNC speakers performed, other than Marco Rubio, who was really good. There were several decent speakers at the DNC. Michelle Obama, of course, was spectacular. I kind of like watching all the commentators more than the speakers because they seem a bit flummoxed and all excited about the goings-on. It's fun to watch serious, professional, high-ranking commentators get flummoxed and excited.

Erik and Xander Go to the Lego Kids Fest

A Saturday in Football Season

This post will be out of order because I just remembered I had saved it as a draft instead of publishing it. Voila:

The boys rode ponies at the farmer's market this morning. Both of them were delighted. I believe it was Nick's first ride - he watched Xander last time, about a year ago. Afterward, since Erik wasn't with us, we went to pick out a birthday gift for him. I already have my gifts, but Xander insisted on picking out something himself. He picked out a card and a gift (which I won't mention by name) completely by himself. I gave plenty of suggestions of what Erik likes, but Xander rejected them all and came up with his own idea which was a really good one. I think he's taking after his father in that way.

This afternoon, the boys nicely played "Star Wars" together, inside and out, and watched some TV. It's football season, which means our TV will be on for longer periods of time on the weekends. On the one hand, I don't like to add more TV to our lives; on the other hand, it really is kind of a family bonding activity. I bought some family cups at the grocery store especially for football season. Erik's is a nice collage of all the NFL team pennants, Xander's is similar but with a white rather than a dark background, mine is the Minnesota Vikings, and Nick's is a Texas Longhorn cup. (I figured he could learn the shape of the state of Texas this football season.)

Our Doings, Including Some Birthday Things

Yesterday:

• Xander listened to the introduction to The Story of the World
• Xander copied a phrase
• Xander did math work with the More M&Ms Math Book
• I read more of The Hobbit to him
• Erik took Xander (who was riding his bike) all the way up to the convenience store closest to us
• Xander helped me do a quick cleaning of the house, without complaint
• Xander did a quick cleaning of his room, 2 minutes long, before bedtime
• I ran 20 minutes, a little faster than my last several runs
• I took Nick on a "cool-down walk," a long loop around the block with him and Winnie the Pooh in his stroller

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I also went out a run, 18 minutes long (jogging pace), on Saturday evening.

On Erik's birthday, he took Xander to Lego Kids Fest at the convention center downtown. They both loved it. Also, throughout the weekend, Erik did a TON of work with Xander re-organizing his Legos and storing some in the garage. Of course, there are some nice built sets on display on Xander's new handmade shelving unit.

I am pretty amazed at how Xander picked out gifts and things for his dad. He insisted on getting a present, a card, and a cake. His gift would have totally captured his dad for months (a computer game) if it had not had some compatibility issues due to being an older game (we got it at the used book store - my fault). Xander wrapped the present very well with my tips to help him. The cake he picked came in handy when my homemade cake ended up being richer than Croesus. All in all, I think Xander is becoming the holiday expert around here.

Here are photos from Erik's birthday and the days before:

picture by Xander; putting flowers in vases after grocery store trip

Xander wrote on our new message board and said it was Chinese characters

some Lego creations from Xander

building a set Dad got for him at the Lego Kids Fest

look away if you're a vegetarian; this is meatloaf (Erik's favorite) with ketchup writing

a few other birthday dishes: sweet tea, homemade macaroni and cheese, and boiled new potatoes

a few gifts and cards waiting for Erik

the cake Xander picked for him

the cake I made; recipe from Our Best Bites website

the icing was more like caramel-flavored fudge, as the friendly lady at Our Best Bites warned

opening gifts (what's in that one, I wonder?)

I got him (us) Wine for Dummies, a wine tasting notebook, a bottle of Bordeaux, and an invitation to start a little wine tasting group, just the two of us. We had our first tasting that night while playing Pandemic. Two victories, even with the Virulent Strain added to the second game!

Under the Weather

We are all under the weather except for Erik, I think. Nick has been cranky and tired with a runny nose for a week or two. On Monday evening I had a horrible-feeling run which surprised me. The next evening, at knitting group, I had to stop knitting because of an unusual ache in my wrist, and as I leaned back against the couch, I almost fell asleep. In public. Last night as we watched our weekly Family Movie (Discover Planet Ocean), my body started aching and I got restless legs. Instead of jogging, I took a hot bath and went to bed early. Yesterday, Xander complained of an itchy, red eye. Today, he seemed to feel a little bit bad upon waking and sounded like he had a full or sore throat.

We are fine, but not feeling that great.

Today, we all got up at a decent hour. Erik and I experimented with Nick's bedtime last night. I'm tired of him getting up before 6:30 in the morning. Nick was put to bed around 8:00, did not fall asleep until close to 9:00, then got up at about 7:20 this morning. Not too bad. We'll see how things go today. Xander went to bed at 9:00 (he and Erik were doing a special job with Legos so they could display the finished ones on Xander's new handmade shelf). He got up a little past 8.

We read several minutes of The Hobbit. I think it helped the tiniest bit that I had Xander copy out the title and subtitle of the book yesterday. I wrote a model on his handwriting paper: The Hobbit Or There and Back Again. He copied it pretty nicely...and slowly. When I was ready to stop reading The Hobbit, Xander asked me to read more, so I read a tiny bit extra. (Leave 'em wanting more.)

As I read to Xander from our library stack, he decided he would later do journaling and Jedi Math on his Leapster as extra activities. We finished reading together My Brother the Knight, El Gato Con Sombrero Viene de Nuevo, Maps & Globes, Where's That Fish?, and Planets. I also read a few pages of National Geographic Kids 2013 Almanac to Nick.

Both kids were interested in all the books. I smiled to myself at how fascinated they were while listening to me read The Cat in the Hat Comes Back in Spanish.

Xander started journaling, taking breaks every now and then to act out for me what he had drawn. For example: "Yoda Force Attack." Somebody remind me to have him do journaling outside next time so he can jump off the porch instead of our furniture while doing Yoda attacks.

I made PB&J Pizza for lunch because Xander had picked it out of our Family Fun cookbook. I didn't take a picture, but it was pitas spread with peanut butter and then blackberry jam. They were cut into triangle slices, like real pizza. I topped one segment with coconut flakes, one with coconut flakes and Cheerios, one segment with just Cheerios, and left one plain. Nick had seconds.

Whoa. The under-the-weatherness is getting strange. Nick is sleeping still and has been for three hours. Xander suddenly got itchy "from the sun" when we walked to get the mail and wanted Calamine lotion all over his stomach, back, face, arms, and legs. He continues to feel more itchy. I don't see any rashes or marks on him except for places where he's itched himself. Looking in the mirror, Xander got upset that his face was green. (It's not.) In two different bathrooms under two different lighting schemes, he said he saw green on his face. He said he has a headache.

West Nile Virus is big news around here now, but nobody at our house seems to have any symptoms of a severe infection of any kind. I've heard painful eyeballs (if you press on them) is a symptom, and none of us have that.

Last night the boys watched Chimpanzee from DisneyNature. Erik picked it out for them at Blockbuster; he is so good at picking out things that other people will like. It was a bit long to keep their attention, but they really liked it.