Life down here on earth

Things are always better in the morning

When I was a kid, I was prone to anxious thoughts at bedtime. This is probably a normal kid thing.  My parents used to tell me, "Things are always better in the morning."  And I learned that, while problems didn't disappear completely, somehow with a good night's sleep and the promise of a new day, difficult situations were easier to face.

So today I figure we can roll with this whole school thing. Again.

I do dread telling Jack, though. He's a champion worrier. The other night when he was fretting about something at bedtime I told him something else my parents used to tell me, which I always found comforting, "God is in his heaven and all is right with the world."**

Jack thought for a moment in the dark and then said, "But isn't there still a war in Iraq?"  Always with the literal interpretations from that kid.

Anyway, we are snuggled in at home having a no-snow snow day. Or a freezing-rain-in another-part-of-the-county day, whatever you want to call it. There is lots of gameboy playing going on so things are good at the moment.

 

**I'm not sure why, but I always thought this quote came from Alexander Pope, but I just learned it's from Robert Browning.

Here we go again

Right now I have that same pit in my stomach that usually comes when Greg and I have decided to move to another state. (Except for that time we left Ohio. We were so happy to leave Ohio. Too cold!) 

The details are complicated, but the fact is that Jack and Sam have been rezoned to yet another elementary school.  This would be Jack's fourth elementary school if not for the fact that he is going back to the school he was rezoned out of two and a half years ago.  So he ends up with a total of three.

Going into the school board meeting I expected one of two outcomes:

A. Our neighborhood would be rezoned to a new elementary school. Jack- because he would be going into fifth grade- could have special approval to stay in his current school and head on to middle school with his friends. Or,

B. Our neighborhood would not be rezoned.

I was totally not expecting:

C. Our neighborhood was rezoned for elementary AND middle school. Jack could have special approval to stay in his current school for fifth grade, but it doesn't matter because he's going to another middle school anyway.

They sort of slipped it in under the radar at the last minute. A lot of people who are affected probably don't even know yet. Blergh.

Sam I'm not so worried about. Around here if he can make it through elementary school only being moved once, he'll be doing pretty good.  Also, he pretty good at going with the flow and will probably be happy to go to a school where the principal doesn't already know who he is.  We shall see how it goes for him.

There are a few things I wish:

• I wish that our county wasn't growing so fast so that this issue didn't come up so often. (Also there'd be less traffic on these tiny country roads.)
• I wish that the school board and county would get their acts together and build some schools since they know this is an issue.  (agressive building plan, my foot.)
• I wish that our realtor had had a clue and told us how volatile the school situation was on this side of the county. We definitely would have considered another area, but we honestly had no idea. 
• I wish I didn't have to be the one to tell Jack since I already promised him he'd be staying where he was, which, in hindsight was a really stupid thing to do.

"It's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is- well, he's hard to stop."

I have the mini-series Comanche Moon (the prequel to Lonesome Dove) sitting on my Tivo. I'm waiting for a quiet, relaxing evening when I can really enjoy it.  Which probably means I'll never get to see it.  I've heard it isn't nearly as good as the Lonesome Dove mini-series, but I wasn't really expecting it to be.  Still, I figure it'll be nice to spend some time with Gus McRae.

I tried to convince a friend to read Lonesome Dove the other day. She was having none of it. It's not much help when you have to start with, "Okay, just forget for a moment that it's a Larry McMurtry novel."  I mean, I know it's a western, but it's also more than that. Quoting all my favorite lines to her wasn't helping either.   I guess I'll just have to go re-read it myself.

I may change the name of this website to "We Don't Rent Pigs". 

 

Read any good books lately?

One night a couple of weeks ago, Jack and I were scrambling around the house looking for a book for him to read.  While I have a stack of books I'm meaning to read that's as high as me, Jack has devoured most every novel in his room.  Since he read the Harry Potter books this summer, he's been on the lookout for another series and I almost bought some books the other day but thought we would go to the library instead.  That didn't happen and so Jack and I found ourselves digging through the bookcase looking for something he could read.  

• The Lord of the Rings- Nope. I think he needs another year or so before hitting these.
• His Dark Materials trilogy- Nope. I think he needs another year or so before hitting these, too. Also, I didn't love these so much. Maybe the movie is better.
• The Chronicles of Narnia- Nope. He tried these and lost interest around book 5.
• Coraline- (A small and very, very creepy youth novel by Neil Gaiman)-  Nope. Jack's not interested in any book that might remotely give him nightmares. 

Finally, in Greg's nightstand I found a tattered paper-back copy of Ender's Game.  It had a .99 sticker on it from Half Price Books.  I read it a long time ago and I think I bought this copy because I thought Greg should read it.  The blurb on the back was irresistible to Jack:

Once again the Earth is under attack. Alien "buggers" are poised for a final assault. The survival of the human species depends on a military genius who can defeat the buggers.  But who?

Ender Wiggin. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child. 

This morning as I saw Jack stuff the book into his backpack before school and it occurred to me that maybe that book wasn't supposed to be for kids.  I guess it's a little late now since he's 3/4 of the way through it.  It's not that I care so much about the material being "appropriate." Mostly I want him to be old enough to comprehend and enjoy it.   A little googling showed that, while it's not strictly a children's book, ten years old is not considered too young to 'get' Ender and his game. The Marine Corps University in Quantico uses it as a textbook on the psychology of leadership.  I'm not sure what to make of that.

I really love that Jack is old enough now to share some of the books that I loved, although I'm having a hard time convincing him to read Heidi.

Next time he comes asking for something to read I'll be ready with The Wind in the Willows, Watership Down and A Wrinkle in Time.  I wonder what is a good age to read Dune?

________________________________________________________________________

Aaand, this post just goes on and on...

When I went to find the link to Neil Gaiman's blog, I found that he had posted a link to 100 books every child should read. Lots of Raold Dahl on there. Also most of the books I just mentioned. I had totally forgotten about Black Beauty, though. I loved that book.  The kids got Barnes & Noble gift cards for Christmas, so now I'm prepared to steer them a little, although Sam really has his eye on Uncover A Shark.

Jack made his own lunch today

 

ETA:  Hmm. The post from my phone didn't bring any text with it. Here is what it said:

"Admittedly, it looks huge, but I'm not complaining because I didn't have to make it and that's the best kind of lunch there is.

Clockwise from top left:  Turkey pepperoni, turkey, cheddar cheese, wheat thins and Dijon mustard.  Also: glass of water and origami nightingale (who was just hanging around and not meant to be eaten.)"

I bought that water goblet at a thrift shop because it reminds me of the ones at my grandma's house. It's Jack's favorite. In the end, he could only eat about half of this plate full of food and saved the rest for tomorrow.

ETA 2:  Wow. That photo from my phone is huge.  Really need to work out the bugs on the phone posting, I guess.

Snow dance

The first thing Jack said to me when I woke him up this morning was, "Did Dad flush some ice down the toilet?"

Huh?

I have since learned that flushing ice down the toilet is one way to ensure it will snow in the morning. Also: sleeping with your pajamas on inside out and backward and putting a spoon under your pillow before you go to bed.

These facts must be true because they came straight from "a girl on the bus." A reliable source if ever there was one.  This same source provides you with new swear words and also the fact that, the other day in your neighborhood, one dog ripped another dog's leg off!

There was no snow today, but not for lack of trying. I'm pretty sure they'll blame it on Greg for forgetting about the ice.

Karate Class

Optimism

We're in the car and the kids are bickering in the backseat.

When I can't take it anymore I say, "I know two boys who are about to be grounded from their Nintendos."

Sam says, "Nooooooo!" and then, "Wait... is it us?"

Skills you can use in prison

If I ever seriously considered trying to keep toys shaped like weapons away from my boys, I didn't consider it for long.  If you don't give a boy a toy weapon he'll improvise. I've seen my nephews craft elaborate and authentic-looking machine guns using only paper and tape.  I've heard of boys chewing their toast into small handguns. And there are always Legos and wrapping paper tubes. A boy will have a gun or a sword whether you want him to or not. 

Before Christmas Sam's first grade class made Santas out of those craft foam sheets that kids use these days instead of old-school felt.  It's easier to work with than felt and you can cut it, glue it, glitter it or write on it.

Also, you can make a weapon with it:

 

 

Sam made this foamy knife with the scraps left over from his Christmas project.  He slipped it into his pocket unnoticed by the authorities. He probably just wanted to be ready in the yard when that gang of hoodlums from Mrs. Shelton's class came over to cause trouble on the monkey bars.

He was so proud of this thing that he pulled it out of his backpack to show me as soon as he got home.  The next morning I had to take it away because he wanted to take it back to school.  He didn't argue with me when I took it. At the time, I figured that was because he knows full well you're not allowed to take weapons to school but come to think of it, it was probably because he knows there's plenty more where that one came from.

Homework canceled on account of tornado

Last summer, the city put in a new park about a mile away from us. They must have installed some civil defense sirens there, too, because when they went off today they seemed louder than I had ever heard them.

I was in the attic, taking advantage of the warm weather to put away those ornery Christmas decorations. It was raining really hard.  When the sirens went off I turned on the television for the update.  Basically they said, "There's a fast moving storm with "rotation" coming right toward you. Get to your "place of safety" right now."  I wonder how many people's "places of safety" have cable, because once I get to my place of safety, I just have to sit there and wonder if it's over yet. 

I love how the radar is so fancy now they list out the subdivisions and tell you when it's going to hit.  "Looks like Berkeley Walk at 2:43, and then Liberty Downs at 2:44 and then Cottonport at 2:47."  This tends to give me a false sense of security, like, 'Oh, I have at least three more minutes. Let's go outside and see how big the hail is!"

Many of my neighbors have basements and they always tell me that I'm welcome to come over in case of tornado, but I never feel like running across the street in the rain while the sirens are blaring like I'm Auntie Em running to the root cellar.  When all of us are here we go to Greg's closet. By 'we' I mean me and the kids because Greg never comes. He's always standing on the porch going, "I don't see anything yet!" and acting in general like he's impervious to natural disaster because he once survived the Northridge earthquake and also saved all his brackish water fish by holding on to their sloshing fish tank through the whole ordeal.

Today, I turned the television up so I could hear it through the door and sat in the powder room surfing the Internet while waiting for things to blow over. I always feel stupid sitting in the closet or whatever, but I think I'd feel more stupid if I were sucked up by a tornado and spit out a mile down the road, dizzy and probably naked.  While I sat in the bathroom the school called and said they would dismiss 30 minutes late due to severe weather.  I was bummed, actually, because we're trying to make up some karate lessons we missed over the holidays and if the kids were late, we'd miss class.

When the sirens stopped a neighbor called and sortof frantically told me that she had a friend who was inside the school who called her and said that they were releasing kids to parents, but they were going to lock the school back down because of another storm and I should go pick up my kids right away.  "I don't know," I said, "I wonder if I pick them up could we make to karate in time?"  I guess I wasn't concerned enough because she said, "Did you not hear the sirens earlier? Go get your children!" I hung up and then decided it was best to go with the emergency plan already in place which says they ride the bus home.

It was a good thing, too, because the bus dropped them off exactly four minutes later than usual and we made it to karate class right on time.  Not only that, but the kids had been released from school without going back to class for their personal belongings, so we got one more automated phone call from the school announcing that the entire school was exempt from homework for the evening.  And there was much rejoicing.