Tag: Kids

We’re getting ready to walk with the animals!

It’s that time of year again! Yes, we’re walking for the animals for the third year in a row. What started out as a service project as part of Andrew’s seventh grade social studies class has become a family tradition.

And this morning it was nice enough to walk outside … and I’ve decided I need a new pair of shoes before the actual walk on April 30th.

As always, if you’d like to donate, we’d really appreciate it. We are walking as Team Oreo, of course. If you’d like to donate, click on the link and follow the instructions on our team page.

We thank you, and Oreo does too:

Well, she would if she could wake up long enough to.

What I did this weekend

Cover of "Deep Down Popular"
Cover of Deep Down Popular

What I did, the weekend edition:

  1. Took two karate classes
  2. Baked banana bread
  3. Did the laundry
  4. Finished reading a novel (Deep Down Popular by Phoebe Stone)
  5. Finished writing a novel

Yes, the first draft of what I’m calling Speechless (even though I wrote a short story with the same title–actually, the short story inspired the novel) is done.

This is less impressive when you learn that the word count is only 32,000. I did that on purpose. This is an upper middle grade/tween novel and that length gives me plenty of room for revisions. I can comfortably add 10,000 words and not freak the freak out about word count.

And of course, during all this, the kids were messing around with Andrew’s video camera on the back deck. They set it up on a tripod so it was pointed right at me (we have a series of glass doors/windows that face the backyard). Then they would knock on the door and run away (but, thanks to all that glass, I could see them–so yeah, not very subtle). Once, I stepped out on the deck and said something to the camera about trying to write.

Later, they holed up in a bedroom to watch their masterpiece with much giggling.

So, if you’re imaging me in some idyllic writer’s paradise … um, yeah, not so much. It’s me, the cooling banana bread, the dog wanting to go outside, and the kids turning me into their own reality show.

Girl Drama

As part of the journal keeping book I’m reading (and class I’m taking along with it), we’re required to try experimental ways of keeping a journal for a week. This could include collecting quotes, writing a poem for each day, and so on.

This was my initial response to that:

One poem per day
Our journal class assignment
My brain may explode

 I wrote the following in response to something that went down in Kyra’s afterschool care program.

Girl Drama

A play no one wanted to hear
About five dogs and two cats, who live on the street.
In winter.

Only one friend came to the audition.
The others wanted to make changes. Six dogs! All different breeds! Does it have to be winter?
I’m reminded of H.G. Wells and his quote about the passion to alter someone else’s draft.

No one will ever know if the five stray dogs and two stray cats ever find a home.
They’ll stay on the street. Forever. In winter.
The playwright had too many tears and couldn’t tell me how it ends.

Words of encouragement

I hope to post a recap of the MEMO conference in the next few days. Short review: It was fun! I had a blast and sold some books.

Here’s the note Kyra wrote to me before I left:

From: Kyra
To: Mom

Make sure to not tuck in your shirt and don’t forget to look your best. I hope you have a good time there. Love, Kyra and don’t forgot again to love and miss me. I will love and miss you too. Love, Kyra and I will love you back and do not and I mean do not forget about me.

I failed on one account. Sadly, I did tuck in my shirt.

A nose for eggs

I do this every year. Every. Single. Year. I hide an egg right here:

And every single year, it’s one of the last eggs that the kids find. This year? Andrew was at the mantelpiece–the egg not three inches away from his nose–going through the stacking dolls as if I could’ve hidden an egg in there. And I stood there and repeated, “Your nose, right in front of your nose. Your nose.”

Eventually he got it.

“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle”
— George Orwell

The weather is brilliant here. Usually it’s raining/snowing and freezing. And since Miss B had the extremely nutritious breakfast of chocolate bunny, I think maybe I’ll take the kids outside for some vitamin D. Plus, we need to get into walking shape for the Walk for Animals this year. 

Hope the weather is as nice where you are. Happy Spring, everyone!

Unpacking the weekend

Oh, it’s busy here at Chez Tahmaseb.

 Last night, after Kyra’s ballet:

  • Dinner at the Chinese place inside the grocery store (mmm, orange chicken)
  • Target for a birthday present.

Today:

  • Birthday party, a three-hour birthday party.
  • Panera, up the road from birthday party (mmm, Panera). Writing will occur.
  • Boy Scout dinner (mmm, unspecified Boy Scout food) after merit badge weekend (Andrew is earning the crime prevention badge, but I keep referring to it as crime scene investigation–Boy Scouts do a lot, but I don’t think they do that much.)
  • Shopping–Kyra and I have made the executive decision that we need new spring styles.

Sunday:

  • Play with my mom
  • New swim lessons for Kyra, at the same time as the play–still working on how to manage that one
  • Banquet for Andrew’s swim team (mmm, pasta, and why we need those new spring styles)

In which Miss B says the b-word

So, last night, the kids were squabbling. I wasn’t paying too much attention since it was one of those fights that eventually wears itself out, but apparently it was about which one of them was the bigger tattletale.

At one point, Andrew told Kyra: “You’re a snitch!”
She responded with, “Well, you’re a bitch!”

Cue the sound of brakes squealing. I’m pretty sure Andrew and my facial expressions were mirror images of each other.

“What did you say?” I asked Kyra.

Here’s the thing: She didn’t know and given our shocked reactions, didn’t remember. She was going for the rhyme. She could have easily called Andrew a ditch, or a witch, or some guy named Mitch.

She just went with the letter B.

Now, we’re not lax about language in our house, but we are open about it, at an age-appropriate level. So, naturally, the sort of conversation I have with Andrew about language (and I think it’s important to talk about such things) is much different from the conversation I’d have with poor Miss B.

We had a quick talk about why we don’t use that word. She’s aware of other words we don’t use, but I’m pretty sure this is one she hasn’t heard before, at least not in our house.

Then, very inappropriately, Andrew and I started to laugh. And had a hard time stopping. We probably should’ve left the room, since poor Miss B was so chagrined.

But then we cooked some scrambled eggs and pizza for dinner and all was forgotten.

Still, I’m eternally grateful they weren’t having the sort of conversation where Andrew might have called her a duck.

When life hands you lemons … or an early snowfall

Here’s one thing you can do:

octsnow1

 

octsnow2

 

octsnow3

After getting completely soaked, they came inside, drank hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, and played board games. It felt a lot like December instead of October. I’m hoping for a few nice days before Halloween since we haven’t made our annual Halloween movie yet.