Thanks 2014, it's been nice to know ya!

Disclaimer:  Yes, this post will serve as our family Christmas card, a much-needed blog update, and the final blog post of the year. Yes, you can call it "lame", if you'd like. I prefer "efficient". And if you're a family member looking for our Christmas card and haven't read my blog before, check out the "Cast of Characters" page down to the right. I've given the girls all pseudonyms to ensure plausible deniability when they're older. But I'm sure you can figure it out.

2014 was a year of ups and downs, as they all tend to be. We worked. We played. We traveled a bit. But we are all healthy and together at the end of the year, so I call it an overall win. We truly do have much to be thankful for. As I've written before, we are rich. No, we don't have our dream house yet. No, we haven't won the lottery. But we have a comfortable snug home with heat that we can turn up in the winter. We have warm clothes to go play outside in. We have more food than we should probably eat. We have a high-quality and safe school to send our girls to. We have loving parents and siblings that live too far away. We have a loving family of close friends that live a bit nearer. We have friends and family scattered across the nation that pray for us, cheer us on, and bring smiles to our days. We are rich.

And the rest? Well, we're working on a little concept called "contentment".

The girls are just getting bigger and better every day:

HeyMama is 6. She loves to read, loves to do math, and says she wants to be a scientist when she grows up. And no, BestestHusband didn't tell her to say that. But he might be a bit proud... She started playing the piano, and is quite diligent about practicing. She gave a short concert of Christmas music at our friends' house on Christmas Day, and is anxious for lessons to start up again in the new year. She enjoys gymnastics more than ever, and can frequently be found hanging upside down or jumping from things. And she is the most perceptive, doting, and sweet big sister a baby sister could ever hope for. And she likes to talk. A lot. I'm still trying to find a way to bottle her energy. Or just find a mute button.

MeToo is 5. She loves to do whatever her older sister is doing. So she's into reading, math, and maybe being a scientist too. Or a unicorn trainer. Or a dance teacher. We might need to start dance lessons first... She is a child of wide-eyed wonder, finding magic in the most mundane of tasks. "Mama! Come look! I pooped a 7!" And she was right, it really did look like a 7. Other letters and shapes eventually followed. MeToo will interrupt dinner with, "Guess what! I'm having a dream inside my head RIGHT NOW!" She's full of fun ideas and whimsy. She's currently lobbying us to trade her to a neighboring family so she can have a brother.

LittleDebbie morphed into HurricaneDebbie, and is typically a Category 5. At 16 months old, she is already the strongest personality in the household, and that's really saying something... She has quickly learned to communicate her wishes, and this week has decided to do that via sentences:  "I need milk!", "I need Uppa!", "I need Daddy!" She has also learned quickly how to climb up to the top bunk, rock standing in the rocking chair, retrieve things from the middle of the dining room table, let herself out the door to outside, and undo an hour's worth of cleaning and organization in 2 minutes. According to BestestHusband, she is a living example of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. And she makes me want to drink. Good thing she's so dang charming and cute...

The dogs continue to add love, fur, and noise to our household. They have become skilled opportunists, seizing on the chance for a belly rub any time one of us sits or leans over to the floor. They even demand belly rubs from the girls. And you know what? It works. It's sweet to see them develop relationships with the girls, and see the girls take more responsibility in their care.

BestestHusband started a new job at a tech company downstairs from his previous job. What's a guy with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and a background in discovering oncology drugs doing working at a tech company? Something Very Different from what he did before. But he still has the same bike commute. (Some call being a one-car family being "cheap", again I like to call combining a commute and exercise as "efficient".) In his spare time he plays the role of SuperDad, stalks Boston real estate for our future house, tends a good-sized garden, makes out-of-this-world mexican sauces, and helps reign in the chaos that has become our household norm.

I'm still doing many of the same things as last year. I work per diem at local rehab hospitals a few days per week. I shepherd the girls to and from the bus stop. I try to keep up with a kamikaze toddler. I started running again this past year, mostly to improve my patience level. And I started baking sourdough bread. And at the end of the day, when the house has been destroyed by my kamikaze toddler and my patience has been destroyed by everyone else, I at least have something tasty to show for my time.

So if you're in the area, stop by for a slice of fresh bread and a glass of wine I'll be ready to pour. We have a guest bedroom, and plenty of mayhem to share. We are truly blessed by what we have, but are pretty much constantly exhausted by it. And we look forward to a new year of exhaustion, love, joy, tedium, exasperation, and blessings in 2015.

With love,
The Bundles Of Joy Family

Bathtime Conversation

We had a really fun day today. Today was BestestHusband's company's annual summer party. "Today was the best day ever!" according to HeyMama. 

The water slide. The girls and BestestHusband spent a lot of time on it.

The slide with the lake/beach in the background, and the huge grassy play area in the foreground. This place is heavenly for families.

MeToo rolling a hula hoop. This kept her entertained for quite a while.

HeyMama trying to actually use a hula hoop. This also entertained her for quite a while. So did the bouncy houses. Yes, there were 2 of them!

It was pretty fun. But I hit my wall around 1:30pm. And we didn't get home until around 5:30pm. I'm kinda toast right now. I'm sitting upstairs, waiting for the bathroom downstairs to be vacated so I can take a shower in peace, and go to bed before the sun does. I'm so ready.

And then BestestHusband calls upstairs to ask me a question:
"Is it ok for the girls to say dang? I told them no."
HeyMama:  "Should I say 'crap' instead?"
Me:  "What about 'darn'?"
MeToo:  "Dahn!" (in a full-on Boston accent)
HeyMama:  "Darn. I left the brush in the car. Can you go get it?"
BestestHusband:  "Perhaps 'shoot' would be better?"

It's a toss-up. Do you let your child use a word of frustration that makes her sound like a townie? Or one that is also a word for violence? Or one that is a synonym for excrement?

There are no good options here. 

Ticked Off

We returned yesterday from a great few days spent camping. We did a midweek trip to Nickerson State Park, on the Cape. Other than a few rainy evenings, the weather was pleasant - warm and sunny, but not too warm. The girls loved playing at the amazing playground, swimming at the pond, and riding their bikes. A few campsites away was a family with two little girls about their age, and they had a blast playing together. Our sites were on a dead end, and they could run races, play ball, and ride bikes uninterrupted for hours. 

But there was one little issue - the bugs. Ok, so bugs are to be expected when camping, I know. But poor MeToo was a mosquito magnet. Her little body is covered with welts, despite wearing long pants and bug spray. And they really swell up and look ugly. Poor kid.

But at least the ticks didn't come after her. They loved the dogs. Despite applying tick medication, the ticks still found their way onto the dogs. We found most of them just crawling around in their fur, with no evidence of actually latching on. This is a good thing. Because most of them were deer ticks. And we're in Lyme Disease territory. 

If you're not afraid of Lyme Disease, it's likely because you don't live in New England and just don't know how ugly it can be. If caught immediately, a course of doxycycline usually does the trick and you're good as new. If not, it can become a chronic condition of lingering and mystifying symptoms. Our pastor's wife inexplicably lost her vision for a little while. Thankfully it came back, but the doctors had no other explanation for it, other than that Lyme Disease can do funny things. 

We keep finding ticks in random places. In the reuseable grocery bags we brought along. On our bathroom floor. Needless to say, I'm washing EVERYTHING that came on the trip, regardless of whether it actually got dirty. I'm waging war against the ticks. They just scare me. And I'm not usually squeamish about bugs.

They're pretty tiny, which makes them even scarier. (Shudder) Anyway, the trip was great, and definitely makes up for the fact that I have a ton of laundry and cleaning and inspecting and dog-washing to do as a result. But I'm still a bit ticked off.

The Day I Put On A Funny Hat And Look Like A Doofus

Let Holy Week begin! This past Sunday, Palm Sunday, began Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter. At our church, that was the day we joined together with our preschool and hosted an Easter Egg Hunt that we invited the community to. So I celebrated the occasion, now known as "The Day I Put On A Funny Hat And Looked Like A Doofus". Attendees were encouraged to wear Easter Bonnets, so the girls and I wore the biggest flowery hats we could manage. And the girls wanted to wear their Easter finest, so we were really all decked out.

We started out inside the church. Pastor gave a short talk, and the children sang two songs they'd been practicing. Then I introduced the plan for the hunt. And then the Easter Bunny arrived. He led us down the street to the Comm Ave Mall, a large grassy area that's part of the Emerald Necklace. Our egg hiders scattered them out pretty well. We had areas designated for different ages so that the big kids didn't plow down the toddlers. It actually worked out pretty well. Everyone got tons of eggs, which they exchanged for tons of prizes, and then they gorged themselves on sugar.

It was pretty spectacular to see our church family step up and volunteer for the event, and things just kinda happened when they needed to. For the most part.

BestestHusband took some spectacular pictures of adorable children outside on a sunny day. But you know I don't like to post pictures of the girls (must allow for some plausible deniability someday)

and, I'd like to protect the future plausibility of my friends' children, as well. So instead, you're stuck with generic shots of kids outside. And me in a giant pink hat. Enjoy!

I'm giving instructions about the hunt. And making a kinda scary face.

Still talking. Now looking really scary.

Here I am yelling. Like the snow in the background? Good thing we didn't hide white eggs.

Now I'm yelling and pointing. Geez, could I manage to take one flattering picture? 

Lots of happy hunters finding eggs in the receding snow.

The bigger kids covered a lot of ground, and covered it quickly.

We'll ignore the topics of why I manage to look like such a doofus, and why on earth there's still snow on the ground the week before Easter. The Texan in me finds that to be horrifically wrong. But God apparently approved of our hunt, because He gave us 50 degree weather to hunt eggs in. I'll just focus on that part and give thanks.

Vacation Report #1

Once upon a time, I was a single gal finishing grad school in warm sunny Texas. I was dating a nice guy in Boston. He asked me to marry him. But I had reservations about moving back to Boston. You see, when I left Boston to go to grad school in Texas, I thought I was leaving Boston for good. I had given away my sweaters. I was convinced Prince Charming was waiting for me in Texas. Well, Prince Charming turned out to be in Boston, and I met him 2 months before leaving to begin grad school in Texas. Ah, the things we do for love. You know it's serious when I'm willing to return to Boston winters for a guy...

He had graduated from grad school with limited success finding a good job in Texas. Of course he had great success finding a job with a biotech startup in Boston. He had been willing to move for me, but it wasn't meant to be. Of course, SLPs can get jobs anywhere. So the future was clear. I'd marry him and move to Boston.

I said yes, but we later discussed our "prenup". I would move to Boston if he would take me somewhere warm every February. He agreed, as long as he didn't have to listen to NPR with me. It was a deal.

So BestestHusband has been keeping up his end of the deal. (Me too, by the way...). And other than the years that we agreed to go colder places (like Fairbanks, Alaska) or not-much-warmer places (like San Angelo, TX) to visit family, we've spent about a week soaking up enough sun and warmth to help us get through the rest of a Boston winter. And it really makes a huge difference in our overall life happiness. Ok, maybe it affects me more. But that does definitely have an effect on the rest of the family, as well...

So right now we're in Orlando. No, we're not visiting the Big D. While the girls would love Disney, we weren't looking to lay out that kind of money for girls who still need naps to get through the day. Especially when hanging out at the hotel pool is still a thrill for them.

Our ideal vacation is a mix of laziness and fun. Today was our first full day here. It was a lazy day. We were too lazy to find a church. So we found it on our iPhones. We wandered around our resort. We made lunch. BestestHusband took the girls to the pool. I took a crazy long nap. The girls came back and took a super long nap. BestestHusband walked to the outlet mall next door to the resort. MeToo wet the bed. I scrubbed a mattress. We all took a family trip to the local Super Walmart to get food for the week. It was definitely a cultural experience. We cooked dinner. The girls ran around like the crazy excited girls they are. They played in the giant bathtub in our master suite. BestestHusband watched the Super Bowl. It was a very lazy day. One I needed to refuel in preparation for tomorrow.

The girls don't know it yet. But it's time for some fun. Tomorrow, we're going to SeaWorld.

I Love Ikea

I experienced an otherwise under-appreciated play date setting today:  Ikea.

Who needs the Children's Museum or trampoline park? Take 3 preschool girls to your local Ikea, and they can jump on beds, investigate every cabinet and drawer in the kitchen mock-ups, sniff every scented candle, and run around in relative safety and peace. And most of the other people there on weekdays have kids, so you don't get any disapproving or judgmental stares. 

Even better, you don't have to pack a lunch. A family of 3 can get a hot meal for $12. That's less than a lunch entree at a restaurant in Boston. And it can even include such exotic drinks as Lingonberry or Elderflower juice. What a deal!

Next time, we're turning it into a mommy play date. We'll drop the girls off in the playroom to be babysat while we mentally redecorate our homes and enjoy tea time in the cafe. Anyone want to join us?

PS. Thanks to Joy (my friend Joy) for getting together today. It was definitely the highlight of this wet and dreary day! And thanks to the distraction of her daughter, my daughters didn't notice the Christmas shopping I did for them. SCORE!

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday! It's not a big one, and we usually don't make a big deal out of my birthday, but this year I want to celebrate it. I'm having a small party on Saturday, but my biggest celebration is today. I'm not doing dishes.

I don't need a candlelight dinner. I don't need jewels. (BestestHusband did get me a large assortment of tulip bulbs from his trip to Amsterdam, which is a pretty fantastic gift.) But I would like to take a brief break from a significant source of tedium.

On days that we're at home, we eat up to 5 times a day. That's 3 meals + small snacks. Most of those happen at home. If they don't, they're eaten out of small containers that are later washed at home. We dirty and clean a dishwasher full of dishes every day. Plus a sinkfull of dishes that can't go into the dishwasher. This is no surprise to other moms, right? But that's a lot of time spent in the kitchen. And I want that time back today.

So this morning, we took care of a few household tasks, then took the dogs to the Arb. It was a lovely day for a walk, and the girls ran out a lot of energy. The dogs had a great time, too. Then we went to the Children's Museum to take advantage of our membership before it expires. We ate lunch at the Au Bon Pain on site. It was luxurious. I didn't pack a lunch. I didn't carry a diaper bag. I didn't clean a thing. I felt so free! It was $12 well-spent. Then we played at the Children's Museum for 3 hours. There's so much to see and do there. The time flew.

We came home, lounged a bit, then BestestHusband came home early. And took us out for dinner. We tried a new restaurant in the Square, which was fantastic. MeToo ate a huge portion of their Southern mac and cheese. And the sangria was tasty. (Jenny, you guys would love this place. It locally sources everything, and orders a whole pig every 2 weeks. They have an entry in the menu called "The Pig Project" that changes daily depending on what they need to use. The water was poured from Thatcher Farm milk bottles. I couldn't help but think of you.) We brought home 3 meals worth of leftovers. So I'll have more food that I didn't cook, sitting in containers that I don't have to wash. SCORE!

We put the girls to bed right after we got home. I'm getting ready to take a luxurious shower. And then spend some quality time with BestestHusband.

So all-in-all, I'd say it was a fantastic day. Happy Birthday to me!

Hope your day is full of small luxuries!

My birthday cards, including a much-anticipated family portrait from HeyMama.

The Taproot is Established

Today was the yearly group yard sale of my local mommy network. It's an established tradition with around 40 families participating, held in the basement of a local church. It's a great place to get ANYTHING kid-related at really good prices. So it's a mob scene, of course.

This was the first year I was able to go. Typically, I manage to sign up to work the weekend of the yard sale, and Anne becomes my personal shopper and finds things for me. She volunteers for the event so that she can get in early and scoop up the best stuff. This is a good strategy. Stuff goes fast. But Anne was out of town this weekend, and I was not working, so I got to go and be Anne's personal shopper instead. 

I got there early to help out. I knew the organizer because she helped me with the enormous yard sale I did last year. I ran into my neighbor and her friend who shared a table. I met a lot of new people. Then the sale opened, and the crowds arrived. I saw friends that I know from BestestHusband's work. I saw friends I know from church. I saw friends I know from daycare. I saw friends I know from our old babysitting co-op. I saw friends I know from the playground. I saw so many people I know. I didn't know I knew so many people around here. I know I've said it before, but occasionally I realize how rooted I've become here. And today I realized that I have a taproot in this community. I'm firmly dug in.

I didn't find much stuff for HeyMama, unfortunately. But I did find some great stuff for Anne's daughter, Rockstar. (she's earned this nickname for the place she holds in my daughters' lives. MeToo idolizes her.) Part of me wants to post pictures of the loot, as I'm proud of the finds. But I also want Anne to be surprised when she sees them. So I'll hold back. But I will say this: a pristine Hanna Andersen dress for $5. Of course, Anne told me which tables to beeline to first, so I can't claim too much credit...

I hope your weekend's full of fun surprises!

Insanity

Sometimes parenthood makes you insane. It makes you ignore the drudgery of daily life and focus intensely on the moments of joy. It makes you put off all the boring necessities (laundry, cleaning, cooking meals) and invest every moment of your free time in frivolities. Like piñatas. And cakes.

Or maybe that's just me...

HeyMama wanted a Fancy Nancy Tea Party for her birthday. So instead of tracking down party supplies with Fancy Nancy's likeness on them, we planned a party to the description of Fancy Nancy's tea parties in HeyMamas favorite book. We used some of the recipes in the book that had been requested repeatedly for the last year. We pulled out the fancy serving ware. We provided hats, gloves, and bow ties to our guests. We dressed up in our fanciest best. BestestHusband even donned his tux. There were tutus. And tiaras. And a giant pink hat worthy of the Kentucky Derby. It was fancy. 

There were 3 lbs of butter in this lemon-flavored confection. Yes, that's pounds, not sticks.

We ate cucumber sandwiches. We had hibiscus lemonade and hibiscus tea. We made towers out of sugar cubes. We did sugar cube relays. We played "Pass the Hot Tea Pot" with a singing teapot toy. Then we did the piñata. And by "did", I mean we annihilated it. Actually, the kids beat it up. BestestHusband annihilated it with one spectacular blow. After the scheduled events, the kids ran around eating lollipops, blowing bubbles, and giggling. I think it was a success. HeyMama had the hugest grin on her face, which was the goal. 

I'm a little C-pot.

We're using the leftover cake trimmings and the frosting to make cake pops this afternoon. I had to send  the uneaten half of the cake to church on Sunday. There were still 1.5 lbs of butter calling my name. It just had to go away. 

So now we can start looking forward to MeToo's birthday in November. She's informed me that she wants a Princess Cake. Wish me luck.

Making Up For Lost Time

Whew. It's been almost a week since I last posted. It was a whirlwind week.

My parents were visiting from West Texas for a week, and left this morning. We had a lot of lost time to make up. We only see each other a few times a year. And with the girls as young as they are, 6 months between visits is a lot of time passed. That results in a different child at each visit. So there's a lot to do. There's a lot of "Pawpaw Monster" game to squeeze into every day.

The girls call my parents Pawpaw and Nana. The Pawpaw Monster game involves a lot of roaring, squealing, running, roughhousing, and bouncing on the bed. It's exhausting for everyone but the girls. They just can't get enough. I'm surprised my Dad still has a voice after all of the roaring he did this week... The girls were pretty nonchalant this morning when my parents went to the bus stop to head to the airport. They were perfectly content to resume our regular Monday schedule. But this evening after dinner, when they couldn't play Pawpaw Monster, and Nana wasn't available to read stories, the tears started to flow. You can't blame them. We need more Nana and Pawpaw in our lives.

But we made the most of our week. We went camping. We took my parents to Nickerson State Park on the Cape to introduce them to camping without 100+ degree heat, snakes, scorpions, or clouds of bugs. The weather was mild, sunny, and relatively bug-free. Well, after the first day of non-stop deluge, that is... When we first got there, God had turned on the spigot, and the rain was tropical in nature - falling hard and steadily. For hours. We looked at the radar on our iPhones, determined that the rain wasn't stopping soon, and went to go grocery shopping and find some dinner, where I had the best fried scallops of my life. We did get a good chance to see where the rivers flowed through the campsite when it rained. That's always a good thing. The rain did stop long enough to let us set up camp before nightfall. Which was also good. We were pitching our new ginormo-tent for the first time. It sleeps 6, and has an attached garage. Yes, a garage. The dogs' kennels fit well in there, as was a good weather-proof place to store just about everything else. Thankfully, the first day was the only rain we saw. The girls were in heaven. The park had a playground, and we had our own private swimming beach right off our site. Which was also very good. Our attempts at sightseeing around the Cape were thwarted by lack of parking. Even after Labor Day. It reminded us why we don't make it to the Cape often...

This tent is ginormous.

Our campsite was right on a pond, with our own private beach!

After our Cape camping adventure, we took the family apple-picking. And peach-picking. It was a gloriously beautiful day. We got a bushel of apples, both Honeycrisp and Cortlands. Then we picked peaches, because we just couldn't help ourselves. The girls had a blast. My parents got to check something off their wish list. We made applesauce. Four batches, so far... Yum...

Apples!

Peaches!

The next day, we went to church. And BestestHusband and my Dad smoked a brisket. We had Ally, Brian's second-cousin and our closest family member, over for dinner. We made fresh peach daiquiris, and ate out on the patio. Yum. 

It was a great week. We had a lot to do this week, and did most of it. But now we have more lost time to make up for. Time to do laundry. Time to finish cleaning the camping gear. Time to get ready for a Ruth House event. Time to plan HeyMama's birthday party. Time to continue our other basics of daily life. Back to the grind. 

It was good while it lasted. But now it's 1am. I spent the evening cleaning my kitchen and floors, catching up on laundry and email, and trying to feel like I'm in control of my life again. Reality has come crashing in. I return to work at 8am tomorrow, with a string of evaluations to complete and write up. So I should sleep now...

I hope you had a good week. I hope this next one is even better!

Camping with Preschoolers

We went camping with the girls for the first time this weekend, and it was a big hit. 


Now, let me clarify what "camping" means in this context: 

• We drove across the state.
• We drove into the woods.
• We pitched a tent.
• We cooked dinner over a campfire.
• We slept - like sardines - in a small tent.
• We woke up the next morning and made coffee and oatmeal on a tiny backpackers stove.
• The girls loved the playground.
• The girls loved the indoor rec room with all the toys.
• The girls loved driving to the lake to go swimming.
• The girls loved looking at the swimming pool, but didn't want to go in.
• They thought the idea of coin-operated showers was interesting.
• The girls loved going to Tanglewood and dancing to some amazing live classical music.

Hmmm, this doesn't sound like the camping that BestestHusband and I did before the girls were born...


Because it isn't. We didn't go hiking this trip. We required flush toilets and showers. We brought lots of familiar foods in an insanely-large ice chest. We tailored camping to the tolerances and abilities of a 2.7 and a 3.9 year old. But we got them outdoors. We were outside all day. We got them surrounded by plants, animals, and scenery. And we allowed them to have fun without electronics or their favorite household toys. And we let them run around without hovering over them. We let them run off with a new little girl to stay within earshot. They had a taste of freedom. They got dirty. They learned a few new things:

• You can live from the back of your car.
• There are a lot of bugs outside.
• You can cook food over open fire.
• You can be in the dark and be ok.
• If all else fails, just lay on top of Mama.
• If you leave bagels on the table and walk away, red squirrels will try to run off with them.
• You have to take trash to the dumpster or the animals get into it.
• Lake water is different from pool water, and you can control how deep you go in.
• Binoculars help see things far away. If you turn them around, things look different.
• Magnifying glasses help see things close up. If you put them to your face, things look different.
• If you leave baby wipes on top of the car at a rest area, they disappear.
• Camping is fun and we want to go again soon.

Someday, I would love to do backpacking camping as a family. But that is quite a distance ahead in the future. For now, we just want them to experience the outdoors, and develop an appetite for more.


In the meantime, I'm marveling at how we can spend as much time preparing and recovering from the trip as we do actually enjoying the trip! Ah well. In the future, they'll be old enough to help more...


PS. I forgot to mention what WE learned!

• Summer camping trips will result in garden explosions. (Holy Bolted Spinach Batman!!!)
• No matter how much you water things in advance, your front porch hanging baskets will try to die.
• Your dogs might come back from the dog sitter's house with fleas. Lots of them.
• Guard your only package of baby wipes like your LIFE depends on it.
• Make sure you pack your glasses if you're blind without contacts in.
• 2 children do NOT equal 1 adult when it comes to tent capacity.
• Make sure you pack more than one match.
• Pack earplugs if you don't enjoy crow serenades at daybreak.
• Recovering from a camping trip might take most of the next week.

Stewardship Sunday - Weekend Getaway Edition

Whew, Sunday again. How did that happen?


We returned from a quick weekend getaway, and are gearing up for the real summer vacation - a week with extended family at a lake house in the upper Midwest. It's late. So I'll try to do a quick week overview and leave the details for tomorrow.


Monday: Gym, led preschool music time, had relaxing afternoon at home. And a visit from the plumber. I think. It feels so long ago...


Tuesday: Worked an extra long day in Boston. Had a delayed train. BestestHusband cooked sandwiches for dinner.


Wednesday: Went to Children's Museum with college roomie and her two boys. Ran errands and did laundry to prep for the camping trip. Then was exhausted.

Thursday: Worked in Boston, then had dentist appointment in evening. BestestHusband cooked takeout for dinner.


Friday: Spent the morning packing for the camping trip. BestestHusband came home early from work, and we headed west. In lots of traffic. We set up camp, roasted hot dogs and s'mores, and crashed (like sardines who like to lay on Mama) in our small tent. 


Saturday:  BestestHusband (who actually slept through the night) let me sleep in. The girls enjoyed the playground. He enjoyed the newspaper. We went swimming in a lake. We showered and got ready for Tanglewood. We spent an evening under the stars, listening to world-class music in a world-class outdoor music venue, drinking sparkling wine and eating a 5-star picnic. They topped it off with fireworks. We got back to the campsite after 1am.


Sunday:  We straggled out of our tent not too long before checkout time. We hurried to pack up and check out. We drove a lot. We went to an outlet mall on the way home. That was so painful on so many fronts, but most of our anniversary shopping is now done. We came home. We greeted the dogs. We discovered they acquired fleas at the dog sitter's house. We rushed to get the girls fed, bathed, and in bed. We tried to clean up from the trip and de-flea the dogs and the downstairs. 


Food waste: It was a hectic week. A perfectly-nice batch of spinach got composted. Some perfectly nice lettuce met the same fate.

Money: Camping + Tanglewood + outlet mall = ouch. But 2 out of the 3 are what we hope the girls' memories are made of. And 1 out of 3 are what much of their food will be made WITH.

Patience: We were trying to accomplish a lot this week, which always puts a strain on everyone. We had a lot of fun, but had a few trying moments, as well. I'd rate this week a "fair" to average out the ups and downs.

M&Ms: MeToo started pooping on the potty this week. And the floor. But she did earn M&Ms for the potty poops. I earned M&Ms for cleaning up the floor poops.

Time: We did a lot of great memory-making stuff this week. I think our time use was pretty good. I'd just like to have more of it...


More info to come on camping, Tanglewood, and out outlet trip. Hope you had a great week, and are looking forward to another one!

What the Big Dig Did Right

Bostonians can't help but notice what the Big Dig did wrong. The construction phase was hell. I'll never forget the horror and helplessness I felt as poorly-marked detours sent me further and further away from the airport. And yes, I did miss that flight.


Taking an urban highway system and moving it underground is a Herculean undertaking fraught with countless obstacles. Subways lines had to be avoided. Tunnels had to be sunk into the shipping channels. Detours and even road directions changed daily. If someone asked, "Was this road here yesterday?", chances were good that it actually wasn't. This is bound to cause some confusion and headache.


And the outrage and scandal continues as defects and graft are uncovered. The ceiling tile that fell and killed a woman was due to contractors installing cheap substandard bolts. The pavement is also substandard, and slowly turning our main highway into a gravel road. Behind-schedule, over-budget, poorly-made, and plagued by accusations of corruption, it's a textbook case of how NOT to do a public works project.


But they did do a few things right...


When they buried the swath of elevated highway that stretched north/south through town, they were left with a continuous stretch of open space - valuable open space in the middle of a tightly-packed city. And instead of selling it all off for profit, they preserved it as urban green space. They turned it into a string of parks. And then they sprinkled it with art, sprinkler parks, and a carousel.


The result is stunning.

The girls exploring the "Urban Garden"

The girls climbing the "Tree of Knowledge"

Not sure the name of this sculpture, but BestestHusband called it "Giant's Coatrack"

We're obviously not giants. We need a different coatrack.

HeyMama enjoyed climbing the pumpkins and jumping off.

There used to be an ugly green highway here. Now there's a big tree.

Despite all of the green space, we are still in the city.

Plenty of room to run and roam.

MeToo kept gravitating back to the "Tree of Knowledge". Not a bad thing...

I'd love to spend a day just exploring its length. We would have happily stayed longer if we'd packed a dinner. We'll add that to our list of things to do this summer...

The Barnacle and the Fish

So last week the girls started swimming lessons. I wanted to wait until we could start them both at the same time, and it needs to be on a Saturday so that BestestHusband can participate. With an upcoming summer trip to a lake house with extended family, this seemed like an appropriate time to start. 


So for the past two Saturday mornings, we spent 9-9:30 in the YMCA pool. The class is disappointingly unstructured, but the girls don't seem to mind. 


HeyMama is turning into a real fish. She's still not so thrilled to have her face in the water yet, but give her a few flotation devices and she's paddling her way back and forth across the pool like a pro. We find a destination point across the pool, and off she goes. I've seen her get gradually braver each time. 


MeToo is still a barnacle. I nicknamed her The Boston Strangler today. She wraps her arms around my neck and hangs on for dear life. This is going to take a bit longer for her. I see a lot of "zero entry" pools in our future this summer. That's ok. HeyMama was a bit of a barnacle last summer too.