James' Drawings

The assignment was to 1) draw their own shoe while observing it, 2) divide the field of view with straight lines and 3) alternate between color and gray scale within those divisions. I am completely in love with the toe of this shoe. It's perfect! I can't even point out what makes it look so realistic. I just look at that and it's actually how a shoe looks.

This is the exterior view of the latest iteration of James' dream home.

I couldn't get this image turned around properly :(  I just love seeing each wall of the room in turn. 

Same here...all the details and spatial reasoning that went into this...it's just very satisfying to see and imagine myself there. I love it!

Bike Ride with James

I scheduled the van for a hitch install this week, just in time to drive down to Houston next week and pick up a trailer full of goodies to bring home to Urbana :)

Serendipitously, the UHaul hitch install place is only half a mile from the bike shop where I work, so drop off was easy. I could take my bike in the van to UHaul, bike to work, then drive or bike home depending on when the install was done.

Well, it got a little sticky at 3pm when all 4 kids had dentist appointments and the van wasn't ready yet. Bobby squeezed them into the white car and made it work, though. Yay! 

(Still no cavities. This is beyond ridiculous! Not one cavity in 49 combined years of tooth-growing?! Sheesh. Tough little toothies.)

 

Alex threw up several times that night. Matthew had experienced the same stomach bug a few days before, but we thought it was food poisoning. Nope! So, we immediately cancelled piano lessons and Winter Fun Camp happening the next day.

When the car was ready, I was ready to get out of the house and away from the kids. I decided to ride my bike to the UHaul shop. Much to my surprise, James wanted to come along. I thought about it for a minute. I weighed the options, pros and cons, and decided that it would be more fun for me and everyone else if James came along. It was only 6 miles, the temperature was in the wet but tolerable low 40s, and he's a confident and focused cyclist. He wouldn't slow me down much, and he wouldn't complain. 

I've just gotta say it again: James doesn't tend to complain. He's got all sorts of other energy-draining behaviors, and he will complain now and then, but most of the time he just accepts it or finds a logical way around it or inspires others to complain about it instead 😉 

And you know what? We had a really good ride together. The route took us through a part of campus that he knows well from our ACES Family Academy experiences. He reminisced out loud as we passed those landmarks, noting what has changed since our stay last July. Then we biked through several neighborhoods. He pointed out houses and cars that piqued his interest, talking about how different they all are even in one neighborhood. He made me see my commute in a very different way.

He did get tired about mile 4. We were ascending a long, slow Illinois hill. He paused at a Lost Cat poster for several minutes reading it over and over and then looking around and then reading it again. Soon afterwards, we were coasting down the other side at 15 mph and he was shouting out discoveries about his head position and how that changed the volume of the wind. 

I really do enjoy 1-on-1 time with my kids. It didn't hurt that I also got to be riding my bike and finishing an errand at the same time 😀

Found this lovely photo op along our ride :) It's on the side of a motorcycle shop.

It got me thinking that maybe I could do recreational cycling with this kid. You know...drive somewhere, ride your bike around to see stuff, then drive home. I have zero interest in that sort of thing on my own, but it would be an absolutely lovely way to spend time with someone I love. And now that we have a hitch...

Family birthday

Our family turned 22 years old on Monday. We got to celebrate it with Erin! I created a little slideshow of pictures touching on our time together as a family.

We're all old enough now to appreciate cute baby pictures :)

It was strange seeing pictures of the kids much younger than now. The growth happened ever so slowly...each child inching from who they were then to who they are now. Some traits clearly persisted, some evolved into other shapes, and some completely disappeared. I wonder how much Bobby and I have changed. 

This year marks a significant middle point in my life: I have been married as many years as I've been single.

After the slideshow, we went to dinner at the Urbana Garden Family Restaurant. It's not an awesome restaurant, but it has a little bit of everything so everyone could order something they liked. 2 people ordered breakfast, 2 ordered sandwich things, and 3 ordered classic American fare.

After dinner, we went to the movie theater and watched "Wonka." The family gave mixed reviews on that one, but I personally liked it very much.

I didn't take a single picture all night. During the slideshow, Robert reveled in the fact that there weren't many pictures of him at this age. Bobby took one right then 😆 

Christmas Change

Christmas is working a little differently for our family this year. I routinely feel overwhelmed in mid-November with all of the Christmas holiday work to be done. Even the "fun" traditions take loads of emotional effort for me since it's very difficult to meet everyone's changing preferences and expectations. Add that to the "Mommy Tax*" and I pretty much can't win.  

So, it occurred to me this year that maybe we could divvy up the emotional burden! 

--Bobby and I are managing the Santa gifts

--Alex is planning Christmas Dinner

--Robert is responsible for filling everyone's stockings

--James is in charge of our daily advent countdown activities

--Matthew is putting together our Christmas Eve dinner and Program

The kids were pretty excited about this when it was first proposed. James put together the Advent Calendar right away. Already, we've had a foil boat contest, sat by the fire, put up the Christmas tree, run around the house, and listened to meditation music. There have been a couple activities that James and Matthew decided weren't worth the effort after all (e.g. make a nativity scene out of cardboard) and instead of supreme disappointment that Mom put something lame in the advent countdown (Mommy tax!), they just shrugged their shoulders and moved on as if to say, "Well, what else would you expect from a kid?" 

Such a welcome relief! And while the activities aren't especially spiritual or Christmas-y, they are exactly what the boys love best about them: something unexpected and fun to do together as a family every day. I'm good with that. 

The other day, Matthew was reading The Friend magazine and gasped, "This is something we could do for Christmas Eve!" It's a script for a Christmas Nativity Play complete with a narrator and simple costume instructions. He was so excited! That's tooooootally up his alley.

Robert asked me to take him shopping on Saturday for the Christmas stockings. We gave him a budget and a few loose guidelines and he was ready to go. I was not. I hate shopping. Especially during the Christmas season. And especially, especially when there isn't a clear shopping list. I gathered my strength and off we went. Turns out, Robert is a thoughtful, diligent, and flexible stocking shopper. He made all the tough decisions. He made it fair. He tailored each one. He stayed remarkably on-budget and within the guidelines we set. Not only that, but Robert is delightfully funny and charming when it's just me and him. Soooo, an odious Christmas chore turned into quality time with one of my favorite people on the whole planet! Best Christmas gift ever. Seriously. 

Bobby and I worked together on the Santa gifts. He had some really great gift ideas for the kids that I think will go over really well. I like spending time with Bobby. I like working with him, too. He's such a nice guy. Not just smart and good looking, but just plain nice.

Alex is currently working on the Christmas dinner menu. He has already asked me if I'm capable of following a recipe even if it's full of butter, cheese, more butter, and refined grains. I squintched my eyes and said yes. I've never managed to do that with recipes in the past, but I can do hard things for my family...right? 

*Mommy Tax is what I call the additional emotional charge behind anything one's mother does, says, gives, offers, forgets, or celebrates. Because a particular gift or activity was selected by Mom, it means something different from the same gift or activity selected by another person. For example, if I chose to give my child cash instead of stocking stuffers because I know there's no toy or game he would want in there, he would be disappointed and hurt. Really hurt. If he is filling stockings, however, and decides himself that there isn't any stocking stuffer he actually wants, then he's just fine with the cash. This Mommy Tax applies to everything I do for/with/relating to my children. It's a super power AND my kryptonite. 

Kids on the Stairs

 

We're missing one of the Garner kids (he's at college) but the rest are here. Why don't Robert and James ever smile in pictures?! They won't tell me. Maybe when they're adults they'll feel like sharing.