Family Life

I don’t actually have a whole lot to say today, but the opportunity to post on this particular date is too rare to pass up.  So hello, how are you?  I am fine.

Did you ever write letters like that when you were little?  Once upon a time I had a school assignment to write a letter and mail it.  I wrote to my cousin who is 3 months older than me.  We became steadfast penpals and best friends.  For the first couple of years, though, our letters were pretty much all, “Dear Annie, how are you?  I am fine.  What did you do in school today?  I had a math test.  Do you like math? It rained today.  I am running out of room, so goodbye.”

I wasn’t always the riveting writer than I am today.

I was thinking of my cousin Annie today because I learned that Davy Jones of the Monkees had died.  We loved the Monkees, my cousin Annie and I.  Sometimes she’d come and stay with my poor lonely, only child self for a week over the summer.  Both my parents worked so we’d be at home watching TV pretty much all the livelong day.  The reruns of “The Monkees” were our favorite.  One year, she actually  brought her tape of a Monkees album with her and we’d dance around my room, singing Monkees songs at the top of our lungs.

I might have to head over to iTunes and download me some Monkees Tunes like the rest of the world, so I can once again sing them at the top of my lungs.  It’s probably more fun when you’re 16 and home alone with your goofy cousin-turned-best-friend than say, home with a bunch of kids that are depending on you for an education, and I don’t mean of the pop icon variety.  Oh well, you’ve got to work with what you’ve got.

And speaking of which!  The next time Leap Day rolls around, assuming that the world doesn’t end this December, Pipsqueak will be 5, Bip will be 11, Pumpkin Girl will be 15 and Boo will be 17.  And driving! Driving, I tell you! Wonder if he’ll be blasting some Monkees tunes in his car?

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Pipsqueak is fortunate to have some awesome quilters in his life.  My friend Shanti made him this beautiful quilt and I just had to share some pictures.

And it’s got a fun Eric Carle print on the back.

My mommy has the best friends!

His godmother made him a cute quilt, too. I’ll share pictures of that one next.

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I had a post all written up last week and I just needed to take some pictures.  But it wasn’t my best writing and I kind of felt like I was phoning it in, so I didn’t publish it.  Then a friend of mine died.

It wasn’t unexpected.  She’d been fighting cancer for 3 years and had just entered hospice care.  Still…it hurt.  Sandy (not Falling Like Rain Sandy) was one of my many e-maginary friends – people I’ve met through various internet forums.  She was a fellow homeschooling mom of two boys, 9 and 11 years old.  She was also a knitter.  After she died I spent some time looking at her Ravelry (an online knit and crochet community) profile.  I recognized a few of her finished projects as being gifts that she made for others while she was going through chemo.  She was just that kind of a person.

I also looked through her queue of projects she had wanted to make.  It was sad, seeing the hope for the future there in a line of anticipated projects.  Who were they going to be for?  Feeling rather morose, I looked at my own Ravelry queue and got even sadder looking at the projects I’ve never started.  Sweet baby projects that I’d intended for Pipsqueak who grew too fast, as babies tend to do, and now it is too late for those sweaters and hats. Hope and loss, life and death.

I got to thinking Sandy leaving her children and what sorts of things she wished she had the time to do with them. I thought about leaving my own children – but I just couldn’t go there.  I did think about the many things I’ve promised to with or for them.  I thought about how Sandy was just one year older than I am.  I’m sure she once thought she had all the time in the world.  So I declared 2012 to be the Year of the Finished Project.  Home projects, craft projects, projects for the children.  I’m not going to stress myself out with deadlines, but I am going to keep a running list of things I want to do.

Most importantly, I’m going to do them.

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Gung Hay Fat Choy!  Happy Lunar New Year!

2012 finds us once again in the year of the Dragon, which is fun for our family because our very own Pumpkin Girl is a Dragon (as is her uncle and her grandmother).  Which also means that she will turn 12 this year and I’m not too sure how I feel about that.  The most recent Years of the Dragon are:1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988 and 2000.  Are you a dragon?  If so, how well does this description fit you…

Those who are born in the dragon year are innovative, self-assured, brave, enterprising, conceited, passionate, and quick-tempered. The Dragons are often referred to as the free spirits of Chinese Zodiac. Their creative sparks get destroyed when they are restricted. Hence dragon people always look to be free and uninhibited.
A beautiful creature, Dragon happens to be flamboyant and colorful. Dragon personality traits range from being energetic, irrepressible and gifted. They are fearless and confident and ready to take up any challenge. In most cases they happen to be successful.

Helping others is something that they find pleasure in. One can always count on the dragons for help. They make friends very easily because of their generous personalities. Yet they can be solitary reapers at heart. Those who are born in the Year of the Dragon have a love for outdoor activities and nature. They are extroverts who have a deep love for nature.

Having an explorative spirit, the dragon people are very imaginative. They are suitable for any occupation owing to their adaptable nature. They like spending money for charity. When it comes to finances, they are ready to take up risks and big chances. They are very straightforward in their approach when it comes to matters related to financial dealings and can therefore be trusted.

In a fun little twist, if you were born early in the Western calendar year, in January or sometimes February, before the Lunar New Year occurred, then you  go with the sign of the previous year.  Take me, for example.  I was born in January 1970, so I am a Rooster (17 February 1969 – 5 February 1970) rather than a Dog.  I am eternally grateful for that.

I’ve got Chinese chicken wings (my MIL’s recipe) in the crockpot, with bok choy, rice and pot stickers for dinner tonight, plus almond cookies for dessert.  Not really traditional Chinese New Year fare, but it is authentic and homemade, so it’ll suffice.  I might even make the kids eat with chopsticks!

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Most days I am caught up in the swirl of family life. Ballet, scouts, soccer, school, cooking, cleaning, lather, rinse, repeat. I try not to focus too much on feeling overwhelmed, but honestly, I find myself falling behind on *life*.

An unusual Thursday rehearsal was called for the Nutcracker battle scene, thus requiring Pumpkin Girl and some of her classmates to stay until 8:15 PM. Thursday is my regular carpool day – and when I say “my”, I mean Phil’s. It wasn’t a really big deal, except on Wednesday night Philip got sick. The kind of sick that takes you completely out of the game and into bed.

Still, not a big deal. It would be tricky picking the girls up at the very time Pipsqueak would be wanting to nurse himself to sleep, but we’d manage. That is, until I attempted to get him to nap a bit earlier than normal in order to get him up in time to pick up all the girls and get them to class. He slept all of 40 minutes, thus setting him up to be extra crabby just when I needed to be heading back out to pick them all up again. Oh well, can’t be helped.

And then as I was picking up one of the girls, her mom came out to talk to me. She said, “I know you have little ones, would you like me to pick up the girls tonight?” Yes, yes I would! I know I could have asked for help earlier, but I hate to be flaky. I don’t like saying, oh I know I made a point of saying I could still drive after rehearsal, but now I can’t. It sure was nice to have that off my plate.

Then on the way home from running the Ballet Express, I was sitting first in line waiting for the left turn arrow to turn green. I was looking off to the side, kind of day dreaming. I was looking at the Walgreens on the corner, thinking about all the things I needed to get there. I snapped out of it and turned my head back to the front to see the light had turned green. And in the small bit of time that it took me to react, someone in the cross-traffic – in the lane closest to me – ran the red light.

Note that sequence. Daydreaming, notice light already green, car runs red. Had I been paying attention and had started moving my car a moment earlier, I would have been t-boned by the car screaming across the 4 lane intersection. At best, he would have clipped the nose of my car. At worst, my door would have taken the full brunt of it.

Somedays you are caught up in the details that make up your life. You chug along, hoping for a break. Other days, God shows you small mercies, letting you know that He’s got you covered.

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My life is totally dominated by ballet.  Ballet auditions, ballet rehearsals, ballet clothes, ballet buns.  Not to mention regular ballet classes.

August started so peacefully, in spite of the fact that Pumpkin Girl moved up a level in ballet and so is now up to 3 classes a week of an hour and half each.  Then she auditioned for and was offered a spot in her school’s pre-professional company.  That came with a requirement to take one other dance class, plus company meetings and rehearsals.  She chose her additional class to be one that happens immediately before company rehearsals, so we drop her off on Saturday after lunch and pick her up sometime around dinner.  It depends on what they are rehearsing.

Of course, there were additional clothing items needed for being in the company, including another black leo, another uniform leo and a company warm-up suit.  The company warm-ups are optional.  Well, to the studio they are, but not to the dancers!  How can you possibly make the company and not buy the warm-ups? We smiled understandingly and wrote the check.

Her place in the company guaranteed her a role in their Nutcracker, taking place in December.  She was happy to be given a party girl role.  I quaked in fear of the natural-hair boingy curls for her straight, straight hair.

Then she auditioned for and was given a role in the Nutcracker that is performed with our city’s philharmonic orchestra and a professional ballet company from out of town. She was also given a party girl role.  More boingy curls! She was slightly disappointed because she wanted to be a baker.  Bakers get to bounce on a mini trampoline disguised as a cake, no curls needed.

Then last week she was given an additional role in the company Nutcracker as a soldier.  The trick here is that she will perform the party girl role and the soldier role on the same day, in different shows.  They require different hair.  If – and I PRAY this happens – she is a party girl in the first show, then in between shows I can wet down the curls and slick them back into a simple bun that will tuck under her soldier hat.  If it goes the other way, soldier in the first show, party girl in the second, I will have to curl her hair, by hand!!! with a curling iron.  Woe!

She’s putting 12 hours in the studio this week.  She is dancer, hear her roar.

And me?  I put her hair in a bun, decipher the rehearsal schedules, write the checks, drive the car.  I don’t mind, I’m get to be the proud ballet mom.

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