Not Ready for Prime Time

I don't think you will see the Litter and I on TV anytime soon. Face it we are just plain boring, no huge dramas beyond the boy's bickering, simply an ordinary average family moving through life with normal worries. Hmmm, I guess that's good, but it does make for a dull blog.

School has been out for about two weeks now. It has taken that long for the kids and I to find our daily rythym, and we still don't have the kinks worked out but we are getting there. Transitions seem to be hard on all of us.

One activity we have been doing is "school" it's not that formal but I thought I'd take the opportunity and the ability to keep the kids busy with some practice work to keep some skills fresh and prep Sonny Boy a little for the harder academic stuff he'll face in first grade. He's doing well and impresses me often with abilities I did not know he had. Perhaps the hardest challenge he faces is the ability to just sit down and do the work. I'll say you need to read x number of pages, or write the definition down for three words and he'll whine, moan, and goof off longer than it would take him to do the actual work in the first place. Frustrating for me, and worrisome that the trend will continue when he gets to school. I do not think the work is above his ability, and I'm not expecting perfection just effort. Igor on the other hand is game to work through his whole 300 page pre-school workbook in one day! I literally have to make him quit as I don't want to burn him out on the whole process and really I don't want to spend 4 hours a day on this, just keep things fresh.

Tomorrow we will go North to visit the in-laws. Hubby's grandmother turned 90 last month and there is going to be a big family party at the roller-skating rink! Yes, a roller skating party for a 90 year old lady, though I highly doubt Grandma will roller skate (she's pretty dependent on her cane and walker now days) but really the roller rink is a great idea as her and her late husband built the rink in the 50's and operated until the early 80's. Most of the older grandkids around Hubby's age remember hanging out at the rink and of course all of Grandma's children worked at the rink in their teen years. I wanted to make the cake for the celebration but after my last cake disaster I've lost all umph for it, plus traveling with a delicate cake for two days doesn't bode well for it making it there in good shape. It will be fun as hopefully many cousins that we rarely see (many I've only met once) should make it with all of their kids which have never been seen. The kids will be amazed at the amount of second/third cousins! I will be too honestly as I do not have a very large extended family.

While we are away we will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. We don't have anything big planned but I did want to take advantage of the wealth of babysitters that will be handy and spend the afternoon canoeing a nearby river and maybe a meal at one of the two semi-nice restraunts in the little town. We rarely are able to have a long spell of time without the kids so we take advantage when we can. It's hard to find a sitter for more than 2-3 hours at a time.

The last couple of days have been spent getting ready for the trip, both the boys and I got a haircut. My haircut was a correction from the last cut which was all wonky, this is much better. I generally cut the boy's hair but figured I spring for good haircuts for them as they'll be shown off to family they've never met and I'm sure Igor will be inspected top to toe since he's "the adopted one" the good thing is that he won't be the only child in that boat since he has a cousin who was adopted from Guatemala as well. I wonder exactly what conversations will pop up? I'm also doing all the normal getting ready for a trip things, cleaning house, lots of laundry and plan on mowing the lawn this afternoon though I'm not really looking forward to that.

On the return trip from up North we will make a pit-stop at the house in WI and remove the 90+ bags of leaves from the garage and do a mad dash of flowerbed work (there are LOTS of flowerbeds) to keep them from getting to overgrown with weeds. We hired a lawn service to mow but of couse they don't do the putzy flower bed work. We should be able to make some decisons concerning the future of the house in the next couple of months.

If you asked a question to the Magic 8 Ball about our future the reply would " Hazy - ask again later" and that's where we are with life right now. It's terribly frustrating and stressful but somehow we haven't collapsed. Hopefully a week away from this grubby, stuffed full of stuff house will give us a break from the continual what if's we are facing. Please keep us in your thoughts, prayers, and all your fingers and toes crossed for us. If your curosity has the best of you e-mail me, facebook me and I'll fill you in. It's just not something we want out for general consumption.