Staycation

Last week was Spring Break for me and the kids. We didn’t go anywhere, but we sure did a lot. I crossed a lot of things off my to do list.

THE BIG ROOM SWAP. I think I have mentioned before that the kids wanted to swap bedrooms. With all of the home maintenance projects done upstairs and Aunt Mar back home we were able to take this project up again. Vicki and I spent Monday and Tuesday painting and moving furniture. The nice thing is that all the kids have more closet space now.

The boys are now upstairs. We painted several walls upstairs a tan color with the rest in red as an accent color. This room has an odd shape (eleven walls) making furniture placement a challenge. My only complaint about the boys being upstairs so far is that when they play it sounds like we are in a thunderstorm.

Jenna is now downstairs. I asked her if it felt like a homecoming since this was the bedroom she had when Ben was born and kicked her out of the nursery. We haven’t painted this room yet so it still sports the murals Vicki and Michelle Garst painted on the walls ten years ago. We held off on painting because we want to get at least one more electrical outlet installed as well as insulation in the outside walls. The plan is to have this done by her birthday. Jenna is a better housekeeper than her brothers which makes the view from our bedroom (across the hall) much more pleasant.

We also told the kids that before any toys went back into their rooms we had to go through everything. There’s a lot of stuff they’ve outgrown and a lot of cheap, broken stuff that came from places like Sonic or McDonalds that just needs to go. Nate even understands this and said to us, “When little children get bigger and bigger they don’t like some stuff like that ... if you want to know some stuff about that.”

Even trying to go through their toys several times a year I have been amazed at how much they have to play with. I like Legos as much as anyone, but those things seem to be everywhere! Add to that the fact that Nate is our child who likes to dismantle everything and you’ll get the idea.

RA RACERS. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that the boys had participated in the pinewood derby at church. The Associational (county) race was held Saturday and several boys from our church participated. In a role reversal Nate’s car didn’t perform so well. He was eliminated early. However, Ben’s car ran fast, and he won second place in his age division!

AUNT MAR’S BIRTHDAY. Aunt Mar celebrated another birthday Saturday. We celebrated by having a barbecue supper at their house. She has been home over a week now and continues to do well.

HIKING. The weather was so nice yesterday afternoon the kids and I decided to go hiking. We had originally planned to go exploring around Mom’s farm, but wound up walking all the way to church where Vicki was doing a little work. Then we cut back through the woods to visit Mom and Aunt Mar. After leaving there we walked up to Kenny’s house to visit a while. By this time we had walked about 2.5 miles! Vicki got done up at church while we were at Kenny’s and gave us a lift home. Nate had so much fun on our hike that he’s reminded me of it three times today.

NEW CLASSROOMS. East Robertson Elementary School is undergoing a lot of renovations this year. A new wing of something like 24 classrooms and a new cafeteria has just been completed at the back of the school. When the boys went to school today they were in new classrooms. The work will continue through the summer. In about a month the original part of the building (the part I went to high school in) will be demolished. I guess its about time. That section has held classes for sixty years and is showing lots of wear and tear. The only thing left of my old high school will be the gym. The facility will be really nice when it’s done.

Joe

Hints of Spring

This week started out really nice. Spring was in the air and the weather was warm. Everywhere you looked you could spot pear trees and buttercups in bloom. However, it is that time when winter and spring struggle for control. Tuesday afternoon I came home and enjoyed working in the yard in shorts and a t-shirt in a record breaking 80° heat. The next evening we were back in our coats. Yesterday morning school ran two hours late due to icy conditions.

SHE’S HOME! It was three weeks ago today that Aunt Mar fell and went to the hospital. We brought her home today. She still has some therapy ahead of her, but at least she can sleep in her own bed and enjoy the comforts of home. I still find it amazing that her fall didn’t do any more damage than it did.

YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS ... AND YOUR FAMILY? We wound up missing the bus one morning and I ran a little late getting to work because I had to drive the kids to school. I am so glad it happened though. Over the radio they recapped the news headlines for the day. This included a blurb about what President Obama would be doing that day. After hearing this Jenna wondered aloud, "I wonder how all his family feels about him being the president?"

Taking this line of thought up I asked, "I’ll bet they’re pretty excited. How would you feel if one of your brothers were president?"

"It would be cool!" she replied. "I would tell them I'm moving in so I could live at the White House."

Without missing a beat Ben said, "I would pretend I don't know you."

IMAGINATION IS NOT DEAD! You can say all you want about TV and video games robbing kids of their creativity and imagination in play, and this may be true in general, but it’s not true at my house. Now the boys do spend their share of time manipulating the Wii or GameCube controllers, but when they do come up for air they are running around the house and yard fighting with their light sabers or shooting webs from their wrists. Sometimes they fight each other, sometimes they fight imaginary enemies. Nate has a whole list of powers he wants to have if he ever becomes a superhero. Most of the time all this is just part of the background noise going on in the house for me, but the other day we were leaving for school when Ben said something that made me chuckle at their creativity. The other day when we came out the door both boys were standing on the back porch. Ben looked at Nate and said, “These aren’t backpacks. They’re jet packs!” Whooshing sounds filled the yard as they flew to the truck.

OLD NEWS. Back on February 20 we went to the Upward Basketball Awards Night to celebrate the end of the season. (Illusionist B. J. Harris was there to entertain the kids and put on an awesome show. You can find his web site at www.bjharris.com and see videos of his act on YouTube as well.) This year the kids got backpacks as a participation award. The boys were really excited about their new packs as their old ones were already wearing out.

THE ART OF EXPLANATION. Explaining things to others is truly an art form. You have to present the information in a way that is easy to learn. Using examples from everyday life helps. That’s why Vicki talked about Kevin in a conversation with Jenna. Kevin goes to our church. He is autistic. Jenna had just asked Vicki what autism is.

Vicki explained how people with autism can easily remember all sorts of details about things. In her example she said that if Kevin knew Jenna really well he might remember all kinds of things about her, like the fact that she has cousins in FLorida. A look of astonishment and disbelief came over Jenna’s face. Completely missing the point of the example she gasped, “Kevin knows I have cousins in Florida?!”

Joe

On the Mend

It feels like winter and spring are fighting for control. Last week we had a few days where we could go without a coat or jacket. Then a front blew through bringing cold weather. I saw on Brian and Debbie Freeland’s blog where they got snow. We didn’t get any here. Now it’s starting to warm up again.

THERAPY. Aunt Mar was moved from the hospital to NHC (a nursing home in Springfield) a week ago today. She is there to receive therapy for a couple of weeks before going home. She is doing well and looking good, but is pretty tired from her workout. Aunt Mar was a little disappointed that she would be at NHC for so long (she was planning to be home within a week). We are just thankful that she is getting this therapy and has home to look forward to.

AUNT HELEN. While I admire Aunt Mar’s determination through this latest fall, I must say that I admire my Aunt Helen’s attitude. Aunt Helen is my father’s younger sister. Since I write about her so infrequently I will briefly recap her story. Right after Ben’s first birthday (this would be in 2001) she had a a knee replacement replaced. In the course of all this she contracted a staph infection. Things have gone from bad to worse and she has been in assisted living for several years. Her left leg has no knee joint now. When she is up she’s pretty much restricted to a wheelchair.

We have not seen Aunt Helen as much as I would have liked over the years. She normally lives about halfway to Gallatin and most of our activities take us the other direction. Whenever we do see Aunt Helen she is so positive which is amazing considering how many years she’s been in this shape. This isn’t to say that her condition hasn’t gotten her down, but she tries her best to fight back by looking on the bright side.

Just before Aunt Mar fell Aunt Helen came down with pneumonia and went to the hospital. She is currently across the hall from Aunt Mar at NHC as she regains strength to go back to her home. It has been a real treat to see her on a regular basis again. She cuts up with everyone who comes into her room. I was talking with her the other day when a nurse came through and asked Aunt Helen if there was anything she needed. With a twinkle in her eye Aunt Helen said, “Why no! Is there anything I can do for you?”

I hope this kind of strength is in me if I ever need it.

SCIENCE FAIR. Jenna has gone from one project to another. We are now in the middle of a science fair investigation to find out which battery is the best. We picked up three of those battery powered lights designed to be put in places like closets that have no lighting. Saturday and Sunday we popped different bands of batteries in these and let the lights burn until the batteries ran down. We checked the voltage on the circuit every half hour. So far the Duracell brand has been the longest lasting, however, all but one brand lasted between four hours and four and a half hours.

OFF TO THE RACES. Since the first of the year we’ve been building pinewood derby cars at church on Wednesday nights as part of RAs (this is a missions organization for young boys). We’ve had about 25 boys involved. We held our church-wide race last night. By chance Ben and Nate were paired to race in the first round. Ben had the misfortune of losing to his little brother. I think he would have taken this pretty well except that he was teased pretty hard about it. The tournament is double elimination so he wasn’t put out right then, but that doesn’t make losing to little brother any easier. When we got home all his feelings came gushing out.

Ben wasn’t the only basket case I had on my hands. All the boys in first grade and up get to race their cars in the Associational (County) race in a couple of weeks. Nate is really miffed because he is in kindergarten and this leaves him out. So here Ben is upset that he lost to Nate and Nate is upset that his racing career is over this year. What a dilemma!

Joe