Bedtime is Complicated

Last week was parent conference week. For the most part the conferences went well for both kids. Chipmunk's teacher was especially encouraging and had mostly good things to say. Surprisingly the only constructive criticism that was given was, "needs more sleep at night."

Puzzling. This kid goes to bed at eight o clock at night and wakes up a little after seven in the morning. For a seven year old, I think eleven hours of sleep is plenty.

Then one night, I visited Chipmunk in his room about a half hour after putting him to bed and he was still wide awake.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Bedtime is complicated," Chipmunk said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Well, I try to count sheep, but then there's an elephant stomping on the fence that the sheep jump over and the sheep don't know what to do anymore. Once they figure out what to do, that elephant is back and stomping on the poor little confused sheep...and that's why I can't fall asleep."

"I see. That is complicated."

The next night his dad found him awake.

"Why aren't you asleep?" he asked.

"It's those elephants again. I keep seeing them jump into a lake and splash all the sheep," Chipmunk explained.

"Splashing the sheep, huh?"

And then the next night...

"Is it the elephants again?" I asked.

"Yes. I tried to imagine a portal to take the elephants away, but it sucks up the sheep, too, so then I can't count sheep anymore."

Sigh. Bedtime really is too complicated.

Quiche

The line is still something I struggle with Chipmunk. It's just one of those things. He is a seven-year-old kid, thus he often says rather bluntly his opinions to anyone within listening range.

So I baked a quiche. I spent all morning making a gluten-free crust and baking it to the best of my lacking ability. I'm not much of a cook, so I was a little excited to try something new.

Then came dinner time:

"What is this? A pie?"

"Why is it not sweet?"

"A pie crust should only ever be filled with sweet things. Otherwise it's just wrong."



*Sigh*.

To the Snow...

We headed out to Mammoth a couple of weekends ago in hopes of catching a glimpse of snow…

We definitely weren't lacking for precipitation.

There was snow. There was rain. There was hail. There was slush.

Made for a terrible trip going there…all ten hours of it.

But once we were there, the smiles and delights of our kids wiped away many of the troubles…



Chipmunk rolled his first ever snowball, which soon became a snow man.



Bear got in about a day and a half of skiing…in the slush and hail, I might add. Apparently it wasn't enough for her because on the morning of the day we were leaving she quietly asked, "Can we go skiing again today?"



But really, after all the poor weather the scenery was just breathtaking.



And that was why we went to the snow...

Depth of Impact

Introvert. That's what I am. I have a hard time with crowds, with new places, with being outgoing, striking up conversations, unless I get my adequate "alone" time where I can recharge my batteries on my own…

When we moved here three years ago, it was a struggle everyday trying to figure out how to get my introverted self to find a sense of belonging, to get to know new people and let them get to know me. It was easier for me to stay home and hideout.

Then about ten months after the move, I was invited to a bible study where I met a few ladies. One of them stood out to me because her extrovertedness was just so mind-boggling to me. I felt like I met her and had instantly become her friend. At first I wondered how that could be, how a complete stranger could become a new friend in an instant, but I soon learned that was just one of the many gifts my friend possessed.

I've always said that I'm not good at keeping in touch with people, but I learned it can be easy if I just pop a note into someone's inbox when I think of them. I truly believe that whenever my friend thought about someone, she would send them a text or message letting them know so. She had such good timing, too. It seemed whenever I was a bit down, her messages would pop into my inbox with the cheerful start, "I was thinking of you today, friend."

I met quite a few people because of her, too. She would ask me, "Have you met my friend so-and-so yet? I think you two should meet." Or "I know someone whose child goes to the same school as yours…It would be great if you two became friends!" I eventually did meet those people and become friends with them…

So I give my friend a lot of credit for helping me with a rough transition and breaking through that barrier moving from living someplace that felt foreign to one that I'd now call home.

As I met others who knew her, they all mentioned how much they adored her and how grateful they were to have a friend like her. It truly is a testament to how you live your life when there are just so many people telling you just how wonderful that someone is.

I admired her way of life and how she lived it, how she loved Jesus, how she loved others and how she wasn't afraid to show it.

But it can be said that when a person has such a deep impact on others, such a wide reach into the hearts of many, that it leaves that much of a deeper hole when they are gone.

Such is true for my friend…when I heard that she had passed away two days before Christmas, I just started crying the moment I heard. I thought, "how silly…it's not like I've known her all that long or as well as others that I know." But that's the thing…it's not always about the time spent, but the depth of the impact that they had on you, because it also means that the emptiness you feel when they're gone is that much deeper, too.

She had such a big heart. A big heart who impacted many around her. A big heart who wasn't afraid to show love and care for everyone around her young and old.

Her last message to me simply said, "Thank you. Love you."

And then she was gone…

Depth of impact. The deeper the impact, the greater the emptiness...

The Periodic Table of Huh?

Kids have obsessions. Or perhaps I should say that my kids have obsessions. Even more specifically…my son has obsessions…random obsessions…with things that kids don't normally obsess about.

Chipmunk's latest: The Periodic Table of Elements.

Okay, so now at this point you're probably thinking about how I used to teach science and naturally it's something that I would bring up with my kids…

But really…it's not me.

Yet, every week on Wednesday, Chipmunk comes home from school with 2 new library books, one of them is always on an element. First there was Hydrogen, then Helium and Sulfur. Then came Sodium, followed by Phosphorus, Calcium and Chlorine. Currently, we're reading about the Noble gases.

Each week I'm bombarded with questions:

So if baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, what is a bicarbonate?

If sodium explodes when it gets put in water how come salt doesn't do the same?

Why are some elements radioactive?

How come our bodies are not made with every single kind of element on the periodic table?

Then he proceeds to "quiz" us on how well we know our Element symbols…usually as we're eating dinner. He even "quizzed" our extended family during a brunch a few weeks ago.

Have you ever tried to explain to a six-year-old about why Gold is Au and not G? Yup. I had to brush up on my Latin for that one. Or why some elements decay at a faster rate than others without going into details about electron stability?

So before our conversations were all about Pokemon, now it's all about the Periodic Table of Elements. I'm almost afraid to find out what his next obsession is going to be, because one of these days I'm not going to be able to answer his questions.

Applesauce kind of a day

My daughter's shirt was covered in applesauce bits. After I told her to quickly change her shirt before school, I thought to myself, "It's going to be one of those kinds of days."

After dropping the kids off at school, I was scrubbing applesauce off the floor thinking to myself, "It's just one of those kinds of days."

While I was wiping applesauce off the cabinets and walls I thought, "Coffee is good for days like this."

As I was shampooing applesauce out of the carpet I sighed to myself, "Oh boy, what a day."

I looked up at the clock. It was 9:30 am. It hadn't been much of a day yet, but I was already beat. I had been defeated by a little pouch of applesauce. Granted, the applesauce had been whimsically jumped on by a 45-pound six-year-old, and managed to explode from the carpet and across 15 feet of the kitchen, all while rushing out the door to get to school.

Applesauce. Sigh.

Just one of those days.

Dragonflies and...

Chipmunk: Mommy! There's a dragonfly! Take a picture.

Me: Um, okay. I'll try.



Chipmunk: Oh! There's another one! Take a picture! Take a picture!



Chipmunk: And that one, too!

Me: (Sighs) Honey, we're here to watch soccer, NOT the dragonflies.

Chipmunk: Okay, okay.

Yup, it's that time of year again...



…a little bit of watching dragonflies, and a little bit of watching soccer.