Boycott

Today it has been one year and one week since Tim passed away. It is also Father's Day. The boys and I aren't ready to celebrate Father's Day yet. So we are boycotting the holiday. I don't know if we'll be ready next year. I'll let you know.

Murphy's Law

Nothing went right this week. Nothing I planned happened when or as I had hoped and some things just didn't happen at all. Some of the things that went wrong ended up costing me a lot of money, too. I worked so hard all last week getting ready for the fishing trip on Saturday and party on Sunday. Everything went so well that this week's disasters seemed all that worse by comparison. By Friday, I just wanted to crawl into bed and stay there. It's times like this that I really miss having Tim around to complain to about my bad days or to give me a hug and cheer me up. It took me all day Saturday to just let go of the week's misadventures and find a fresh outlook.

Training My New Cleaning Service

Now that school is out for the summer, I decided that it was time for the boys to help out with the house cleaning. I told them that they had to spend one hour every day this week helping me clean the house. Monday and Tuesday they worked on their rooms. They both came home with bags of school projects and used school supplies. We had to sort out what should be thrown away, what could be used again and what should be saved for posterity. Wednesday we worked in the yard - weeding and mulching and washing down the back patio. Thursday was dust and vacuum day. We moved all the furniture in the living and dining rooms so we could vacuum underneath. I hadn't seen the underside of the sofa since Christmas, so it was more than time. Friday the boys cleaned the bathrooms and I cleaned the kitchen. I'm sure that they felt I nagged too much, making them go back and do a couple spots over again. Over all though, they were a big help and did a good job. I told them they were hired and should expect to do this again regularly.

What a Week

We are taking a breather today at the end of a very hectic several days. I am finally getting caught up on both my laundry and my sleep. The boys are catching up on their TV watching. We also got to eat a leisurely dinner together as a family for the first time in almost a week. What's kept us on the go? Well . .

Wednesday night was eighth grade graduation. My favorite part of the evening was something they call "Popcorn." The assistant principal reads a list of all the activities the students might have been a part of over their three years at middle school. The kids stand any time they were in that activity. They have to sit between every activity, even if they were in back to back events. Thus, the up and down that gives the section of the evening it's name. It's very cute. Theo was in his fair share of things, which made his mother proud.

Thursday was Brendan's turn to say goodbye. He and Theo will both be moving to new schools next year. The fifth grade farewell reception was much simpler, as it was just a short reception before the PTA picnic.

Friday we had another picnic dinner, this time with the Boy Scouts. Troop 72 held their June Court of Honor at a local park. Both of my boys received rank advancements. Brendan, who joined the troop in March, made Tenderfoot. Theo, who's been a scout for three years, received his Life rank. He beat the deadline for his last merit badge by the skin of his teeth. I am grateful to both his merit badge counselor and his scout master, who worked in meetings with Theo on the last troop meeting so Theo could get his Life rank before the Jamboree this summer.

Saturday we were spoiled for party choices. We could have gone to our church picnic, but decided that three nights of hot dog dinners was just too much. We went to birthday parties instead. Brendan went to an afternoon party at a friend's house. I was also invited to a birthday party Saturday night - a toga party! Yes, I did go in a toga. No, I'm not posting a picture of it.
After four days of non-stop activity, we are enjoying our day of rest.

Fine Arts Day

This morning I chaperoned Brendan's class on a field trip downtown. We went to the Art Institute of Chicago. I spent the afternoon shepherding five fifth grade boys through as much of the museum as we could get to in an hour and a half, which wasn't very much. The best part of the trip actually came before the Art Institute. Brendan's school had been participating in a program called "Do Your P'Art," which encouraged environmentalism through art. The kids made box collages out of recycled materials. These boxes were displayed downtown. Here is Brendan showing off his box.

The kids' art was displayed at a building across the street from the Merchandise Mart. The building guard suggested we go over to the Mart and check out the display of canned food art. Someone had sponsored a sculpture contest to promote hunger awareness. The artists made sculptures entirely out of canned food and other non-persible food items. Here is the Cubs logo made entirely from cans. If you look to the left of the logo, the background is a train made out of cans. There were several clever sculptures in this exhibit, including a giant slice of pizza and a giant sombrero made of El Paso Refried Bean cans.

To round out my day of fine arts, the final band concert was this evening. This is the "All-Band Concert," where all four of our district bands perform. This was Theo's final band concert, as he is moving on to high school next year and couldn't fit band into his schedule. Theo had a solo in their last song. It made me to cry to think of how proud Tim would have been of his son at that moment.

Water, Water Everywhere

It rained Wednesday night. It rained a lot. I remember being awakened by thunder more than once. I didn't realize just how much rain we had gotten until Thursday morning, when Brendan came into my room to inform me that there was water in the basement. Sad to say, water in our basement is not uncommon. It seeps up through the floor and trickles in through cracks in the basement walls. At this point, everything in our basement is up on legs or stored in plastic bins. Except, of course, when the boys leave things on the floor, like pillows, blankets and toys. I spent most of Thursday morning and afternoon using the shop vac to suck up all the water in the basement. I spent most of this morning washing the floor with bleach then turned on every fan I have and opened the windows to finish drying out the basement. Not how I planned to spent the last couple days, but at least my basement is nice and clean now.

Happy Birthday, Brendan!

Today is Brendan's 11th birthday. Yes, just four days after having birthday cake for Theo we are having birthday cake for Brendan. When you add in leftover birthday treats from school and leftover cake from birthday parties, we consume a lot of birthday cake in the month of May. While I had wanted two spring babies, I hadn't planned on having my children quite so close together. I remember feeling more than a bit dismayed when my OB calculated Brendan's due date as May 6. At first, I worried about the possibility of having to celebrate Theo's birthday while recovering from delivering a baby. Then, as we approached Theo's birthday, I worried about how I would handle things if they shared a birthday. I was very relieved when Theo's birthday passed with no baby. After that, my internal debate ranged between wanting to have as many days as possible between Theo's birthday and the baby's birthday and wanting to have the baby because being pregnant was so uncomfortable. Brendan finally resolved this dilemma by arriving on the afternoon of May 12.