Life at Home

Truly, have you ever seen such a streak of amazing weather before in Upstate New York? Day after day of sunshine and mild temperatures and trees and flowers unfurling. It’s an embarrassment of riches. I hate that I’m spending time inside tidying up closets or folding laundry, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. I hope you’re all enjoying it and getting outside.

We’re doing well and super-busy at our house. Cute W’s away on business, but he’s coming home tonight and will be happy to be finished with it, as well as a couple of volunteer obligations.

M won a Sandra G. Morley Physical Education Student Leadership Award, an award we’d never heard of prior to learning the good news. It’s from the New York State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (also, completely new to me). Last night J and I joined friends for the ride to the presentation at HVCC, where we saw the latest in tween spring fashion with 5th and 8th graders from all over the Capital District who also received the award, chosen by their school gym teachers. It was not as long as I’d feared, and we ran into various other parents we knew, so it was fun exchanging compliments about how awesome each others’ kids are. Funny how we parents never get tired of hearing that. Of course, M told me that a friend who seems every bit as athletic and full of good sportsmanship as our winners hadn’t received the award, a particular blow because she actually had heard of the award and had attended the presentation ceremony years before when her older sister won. Which made me telescope forward 3 years and begin fretting in advance that M would win a second time (she’ll be in 8th grade) and J would be passed over (she’ll be in 5th grade), causing heartbreak. Because I can find a storm cloud within the most sumptuous and delightful of silver linings. So, cross your fingers for 3 years from now. M’s going through all sorts of social turbulence right now, but it’s probably a separate post’s worth. If I dare. She’s fine, really, or seems to be.

J is always coming up with something nutty and fun. She had a book report due, and she decided to create a giant dice game so that she could ask kids in the class to throw the die and then she’d describe the setting or the characters or whatever landed face-up. Another day she cut out shapes and taped them to wooden blocks or suspended them from chopsticks to create a shadow puppet theater. The shadow tree she made was awesome. Then the other day she noticed how hot the pavement was, so she conducted an experiment: she laid a thin sliver, a larger piece, and a thick chunk of cheese out onto our driveway, then took copious notes on their rates of melting and other observations (the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree).

Everyone ready for Mother’s Day? Doing anything fun? I’ve been saving a poem to share with you. No, it’s not mine.

Speaking of sharing, here’s a lovely article about high school students helping out a classmate for their teacher’s brilliant idea of a school project.