Movie Matinee

Today the boys and I went to see Toy Story 3. If I had to sum up the story, I would describe it as the toys and Andy learning to adapt to changes in their lives. The toys learn what is important to hold on to as you go through life, which is, of course, each other. Andy learns that you can let go of some things (and people) as long as you hold on to the memories of the good times. I hope that the boys and I will be able to hold on to our memoris of Tim and the good times we had together as a family. But we are no longer the traditional family of four. We are now a family of three headed up by a single working mom. We have had to rebuild our sense of family to reflect our new reality, just as I have had to rebuild my sense of self. We are trying to move forward into our new lives. I just wish I was as hopeful about our future as Andy is when he heads off to college at the end of the movie.

Happy Independence Day

After a week of lovely dry weather, we have entered the hazy, hot and humid month of July. A big change from last year, when I wore a jacket and long pants to watch the fireworks. We decided to get some fireworks of our own this year, so on July 3, the boys and I went on a little road trip. If I'd planned ahead a little better, we would have done this road trip last weekend. There were three separate fireworks stands at this particular exit on the interstate and all three had lines out the door. Everybody was very nice about it, however, and the line moved right along. The boys and I made a quick trip through the store, trying to guess what everything did based on the cryptic descriptions on the packages. I wanted to stick to the smaller, quieter items, in order to avoid undue legal attention at home. We picked up a lot of sparklers, some smoke bombs and things that are supposed to spin and shoot sparks. We managed to get out of the store with an IKEA bag full of fireworks for just about $100. Not bad considering the store's top sale of the day was $1800.

We had timed our road trip to coincide with the supper hour, knowing we would pass both an A&W and a Culver's on the way home. Believe it or not, the A&W is the old-fashioned, orange-roofed restaurant complete with carhops! We decided to skip the A&W, though, since everyone else at the fireworks store had apparently stopped there for dinner. We drove one exit further south on the interstate to Culver's for burgers and frozen custard. That was when we got the hidden bonus of our trip. Just across the street from Culver's was a bakery that sold kringles! Kringles are a giant "O" shaped danish pastry filled with different kinds of fruit and covered in frosting. Yummy! I was very tempted by the key lime, but settled for the safer raspberry kringle.

Today was the first time in years that we didn't march in the Skokie Fourth of July parade. Our Cub Scout Pack marches in the parade, but the Boy Scout Troop doesn't. As we are no longer involved in Cub Scouts, we stayed out of the heat and skipped the parade completely. We had dinner at a friend's house and tested some of our purchases from yesterday. A couple of the items were a little noisier than I had hoped, but we had a great time none the less. It was sprinkling after dinner, so we decided not to head over to the high school for the fireworks. We'd gotten our fireworks fix the night before at the Wilmette fireworks, which are always on July 3. All in all, a very quiet Fourth, but pleasant just the same.

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.