JUST WHAT WE NEEDED . . .

When the file is lost and you have to find it, but you don’t and you weren’t the last one to have it, but  you have to find it and you don’t find it, you need rainbows to give you hope.

When there are 45 minutes worth of errands that have to be done by a particular time, but they don’t fit in with the other 2 hours worth of stuff that has to be done in the next two hours, you need rainbows to give you hope.

When the car is in the shop but you really need two cars to get to court and do the errands and be out at the school with everything done, you need a rainbow.

When you feel like you do nothing but disappoint people, rainbows can help, even those that occurred two days ago but you captured on film.

MY POOR LILACS! AND OTHER WEEKEND NEWS

I believe they will survive and produce blossoms, but on Saturday and Sunday it was hard to feel encouraged about that!

On to other weekend news:  the weather that did this to my lilacs is also the weather that I ran my first 1/2 marathon in on Saturday.  Let me give you a few more details:  34 degrees was the high as far as I cold tell.  The winds were out of the East at about  30 mph.  We ran almost due East, so that means the wind was against us the ENTIRE way at a good clip.  There were snow flurries about 75% of the time.

Basically the weather conditions were terrible.

Apparently J told Andy as they were driving over to see me finish:  “Poor Momma, this will be the end of her running career.”  He he he!  The weather really was bad!

But I finished the 13.1 miles in 15 minutes less than I anticipated.  I think I was close to last, but really, there weren’t that many people running – only diehards and me to prove a point.  The others were all much more experienced than me.  And I really did expect to be the last one across the finish line.

I need to give a big shout out to my friends Roberta, the Hawley family and the Wendell family because they all came and cheered me on – some of them even running with me for a few minutes at a time.  It was wonderful to have all of them, and I appreciate them so much for that.

Andy took photos – got some good ones we thought, but it turned out – no card in the camera.  The Hawley’s have some photos (Donna ran the race too, finishing about 20 minutes ahead of me).

Now I have an ugly grey shirt with a picture of a really old guy running on it to show for my efforts.  And a sense of accomplishment.

But my comment about the whole thing would be:  I like my training runs much better.  I may or may not have already searched to see what upcoming Montana races look to be reasonable for me to train for.  I think I might need a race that is on a decent weather day.

And, two days of rest later and I really can’t feel any sore muscles or joints at all – completely recovered, and if I can avoid a thunder-storm this evening, I might go for a bike ride to get this old body moving again – might.

There is more from the weekend, but time to close this post out and get back to work!

SUMMER MANIFESTO – SORT OF . . .

Over at Ali Edwards blog she talks about having a Summer Manifesto.  I thought (think) that is a pretty cool idea.  But then I realized that I don’t know much about manifesto writing.  

Really, my exposure to manifesto comes through the oft referred to but never read by me Communist Manifesto and the manifesto written by Ted Kaczinski (also unread by me).  What would this kind of document have to do with my summer? 

As it turns out, “a manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature.”  (Thank you wikipedia for the quick reference).  Not sure my summer needs the political nature part – seems like the news media and election season will insert enough of that into the summer without my adding more. 

But a declaration of intentions and principles, well, that I think could be a great thing if I can avoid being pompous about it.

So here I am to declare my intentions and principles for the summer – don’t laugh, but some of this is nothing more than “what we plan to do this summer.”  Which is something that has been on my mind quite a bit as I get concerned about a certain 12-year-old being home alone more than usual and being lonely and bored and driving his mom nuts with complaints and nagging ideas about getting together with friends and spending money we just don’t want to spend (he gets expensive ideas when he’s bored!)

So far I know we will be doing the following:

• J volunteering at V.B.S. in June;
• Me doing my first out-of-town photo shoot at a friend’s family reunion;
• J going to two over night camps in July (one is a wilderness camp done entirely in the back country, which I am so excited for him to do, the other involving paint ball, which he is so excited to do);
• Hunter safety classes for J;
• Hopefully some work helping others with projects that a 12-year-old can help with (for pay);
• At least one more stint at the balloon setting for Cowboy Mounted Shooting;
• Continuing with karate lessons;
• Hopefully a visit from Grandpa Gary in July (no pressure, just a hope);
• The Peak-a-Week plans
• Some sort of participationn by Andy in the Bozeman Triathlon   (maybe as a member of a team doing the half-Ironman, where he would do the running leg)

Also hoped for is some camping as a family (no specific plans yet, but I’m going to turn my attention to that this weekend) and some time in the garden/yard.

Those are the intentions so far.  Now for the principles – keep in mind this is the “Momma wants us to be . . . ” list, not necessarily what everyone else thinks is ideal.

• Lots of time outdoors;
• Lots of time being active (biking, running, hiking, swimming, fishing);
• Learning to incorporate fun into even the chore parts of the day – i.e. no complaining that you have to mow the lawn or that you get to ride your bike to a friend’s house instead of getting a ride in the car;
• Balancing work at the office and the stress it brings with laughter and joy at home;
• A little spontenaity if opportunities arise we weren’t expecting;
• Entertaining friends in our home;
• Realizing that entertainment does not need to include a screen of some sort (this is something that we have every summer and really, every summer I find that the screen activities fade as the days extend light further into the evening); and (hopefully!)
• An integration of creativity into most all we do – including time for actual art for momma!

We will happily take any extra visitors who decide to come by, and we may jump in the car and go to Yellowstone or some other destination within a few hours drive. 

So, those are the intentions and hoped for principles of this coming summer.  Schools out in 6 days, and it will all begin.

What are your summer plans?  Link me in to your blog posts about it through the comments.

THEY’RE COMING SOON!

The Lilacs are working on it.

I don’t know why I’m so anxious for them to get here this year.

Lighting was stunning last night – storms rolling in and out, cool weather, but glows that made me run outside with my camera even while the pork chops were under the broiler – had to click quickly!

SHINER

Last night he looked like the photo above after having a collision with the chain of a swing at school.  It was painful, but he handled it with grace and courage.

This morning it was like this – still painful, still handling it with grace and courage. 

But I bet he’ll get some sympathy out of it as well.

NOT-SO-WORDLESS-WEDNESDAY

Teaching a child to work is one of the biggest challenges of parenting – at least in our house hold.

I also think it is one of the most important things we can do for him.  Let’s face it, working is necessary in all lives, and the sooner he learn to do it well the sooner he will be able to find joy in life.

And for our  boy, like many others of his age group, work is not always embraced as a joyful part of the day.  Especially if it is homework or in-the-house work (like cleaning his room, wiping down the bathroom or vacuuming the stairs).

But this weekend we found the weed-wacker to be a great way to learn the joy of work.  It is a long power tool, and the male gender has a very special relationship with power tools – the longer the better.

Thus we didn’t get any complaints from J about his first time out with the trimmer.  And he stayed engaged with the chore for quite a while.

In fact sometimes it looked as if he might be dancing with the machine.

 

Not a single complaint with this chore.

Wish they were all that way.

This is one of those things I can mark down as “progress” – Progress in parenting skills.

GETTING UP EARLY

means I can get outside and take a few photos.  This morning at 5:50 a.m. I rolled out of bed, grabbed my camera and went out into the damp (it had rained all night) to see if the apple blossoms were still in tact. 

I was afraid the rain and wind would have destroyed all of them.

Some of them are looking a bit worse for wear, but there were some beautiful ones too.

And I could hear the bees buzzing, so I’m optimistic about the fall crop – barring any hard freeze in the next few months.

But for right now I’ll enjoy the blossoms.

And I’m looking forward to the lilacs, which should be in full glory any time now.

GRATITUDE ABOUNDS

Just the list today

1027.  10 miles ran with my husband as my running coach – like he was right there with me the whole way!

1028.  New fire pit area placed in the back yard – a surprise from my husband.

1029.  70-year-old father

1030.  Bike ride with Andy – again he’s helping me prepare

1031.  Running into Ben H. at the yogurt place.

1032.  Little bits of growing up progress with J – like getting out the lint roller on his own and sprucing up his clothes

1033.  J’s excited heart to volunteer at VBS

1034.  Connections that are made stronger by walking through a crisis together.

1035.  China Report project almost done

1036.  J’s friendship with S – playing together so nicely!

1037.  New office space working so nicely when we all need to be here

1038.  Complements of Andy’s work from other attorneys

1039.  Instability of spring weather makes for interesting skies

1040.  Eating outside even if we had to wear sweatshirts

1041.  Seeing Andy be a bit playful after a very intense week at work

1042.  Fluffy bunny tails as they run into the bushes

1043.  Interesting spiders in the planter boxes – what’s with the big white bulge attached to some of them?

1044.  Rotten bananas make good banana bread

1045.  Making due with what is in the cupboards instead of running to town to shop.

1046.  Second run at the spaghetti sauce is more flavorful

1047.  Crab Rangoon recipe for China report will be easy to make.

1048.  Fun book to read

HE HAS MY HEART

This young man has me excited, exasperated, thrilled, worried, joyful, hopeful and filled with love all at the same time.  I am guessing that is the general nature of 12 year-olds. 

He is as honest as the day is long – even when being so is detrimental to his cause.

He has a heart to care for the feelings of others – sometimes to his own detriment.

His use of humor and love of music never cease to amaze me.

He’s much smarter than he thinks (but don’t tell him that because he won’t believe you and will get angry that you said so) and at his new school most of his grades are well above 80% – there are two classes that the teacher hasn’t updated the grades, so I have to say “most” instead of “all.”

We have two weeks of school left, and a pretty big project for him to finish, but I am getting so excited about summer and having him around for so much time.  We are going to do “a peak a week” hiking together, and I love the idea of spending those days with him.

I’ve noticed some real growth in his day to day life – last night on the way home from Bible Study he told us that he likes the low sugar diet we’ve been on because he really does feel better when he eats low sugar (this was of course after a day where he didn’t do low sugar, and he was feeling the blah side effects).  Now if we could just get him to have some fruits and veggies instead of just meat and nuts and grains things would really be squared away in the nutrition area.

He’s also is quite the reader.  He’s got a book or two lined up for when he can turn his attention away from his China report (the “big project” referred to above) and do some fun reading.  I’m considering enrolling him in the library’s summer reading program if he isn’t too old because it will have him just one more academic type thing to feel good about, and that is always a good thing.

A GIRL CALLED . . .

And he was on the phone for over an hour.

I’m mixed in my feelings about this.

I don’t think that girls should call boys for dates, flirting, etc.  and that isn’t what this was.  They are buddies who did a project together recently.

Still, it is proof that he’s growing up so fast.