bring on the busy

Today is day # 4 of  100 Days to Christmas. So far I have added my calendar pages to my 100 Days to Christmas Binder. I had the "wish list" discussion with my family and jotted down what we plan to get the boys. Today's task is to set the budget, which is especially important this year with me not currently working. Since my husband and I have been talking about this already I know this task will not be difficult to complete. The remainder of the tasks for this week include making my gift recipient list and starting to think about gifts for every special person on my list, including any home made gifts I might choose to give. later in the week the tasks turn from thoughts of Christmas back to the current season, when I will be asked to finish decorating my home for Fall. Christmas made easy and relaxing, in just a few minutes a day!

I am also happy to report that we had a very busy weekend- busy for us, at least. Between the board meeting I participate in and the two classes my big four and a half year old takes my entire family spent the entire morning Saturday at China school. We left the house at 8:00am and didn't return until nearly 1:00. We then raced around getting the boys fed and getting ourselves ready for our anniversary date. When the sitter arrived, less than an hour after we got home from China school, we were ready and I was not doing my usual running around like a crazy person getting the house ready so as not to be judged by this person taking care of my children. It was awesome!

Between Friday night's tee ball game and Saturday's activities I still found time to stay on track with my daily cleaning and organizing and so was able to enjoy not just a great night out Saturday but a relaxing Sunday which included a family football game in the backyard, (my team lost. that tiny toddler just won't man up...) I also went to the baseball fields with the boys, something my husband would have done alone in the past because I would have felt like there was too much to do at home to go and run around the bases with my kids. I was able to relax at our dinner out because I wasn't mentally freaking out about all the household stuff waiting for me at home. Oh, and because we tried Alex in a booster seat for the first time and settled him in next to Daddy, who then spent the entire meal pushing him back down into his seat, pulling him off the table, taking silverware away from him.... When my older son was little he wouldn't sit anywhere but right by my side, so I was totally enjoying watching my husband be tortured for a change!

So another great weekend, more amazing memories, brought to you by strong organization. Bring on the busy!

I get the sweat and shet gets the sweet

Yesterday was kind of a weird day. I slipped in banana juice and fell down the stairs leading from the house into the garage. There's something I never thought I would say. But my little guy loves his banana juice. That is one of the cool things about traveling around the world to meet your children - so many different customs and foods to try. The baby store in Russia had an interesting variety of food and drink for baby- pureed rosemary chicken, rose hips and oatmeal, and banana juice in juice boxes. My little one liked the banana and peach nectar, possibly because it was a little thicker than our typical American juices. And it is one more way to help my kids stay connected to their birth country. A small way, but parents of internationally adopted children are always looking for those small connections. It is not always about the big stuff. Usually it is about the small, everyday stuff. When I was growing up we didn't talk all that much about my mother's Italian heritage, but we did spend many Sunday's at my Italian grandparents' home, eating the sausage and pasta that my grandfather made, by hand, every week. We had Scottish shortbread with my dad's parents and celebrated New Year's Eve in the traditional Scottish manner. It's the little things I want my kids to remember, and it's the little ways I can help them stay connected to their birth countries that is important to me. So that's why I had a glass jar of banana juice in my refrigerator, which was nearly empty when I threw it away, which somehow broke inside the trash bag and then leaked onto the wooden stairs as I was carrying the bag out to the trash, which is how I slipped and fell down the stairs.

As I was falling two thoughts were running through my head. First: I should have washed my hair. Why is it always when you are wearing your worst clothes and your hair is a mess that you hurt yourself? One of the few downsides to working from home is not always looking your best. The second thought running through my mind has a back story. We have a neighbor kid who is very interested by my husband's mustang. He seems to just materialize in our driveway, usually as are trying to wrestle the kids in or out of the car, often asking odd random questions such as "Why do you have such an old car?" and "Are you going to sell that car?" Why, are you going to buy it from us? For some reason I have very little patience for this young man, even though he has been nothing but polite and one day even drew an amazingly accurate rendition of a newer mustang for my oldest son. Right before I took that first step into the banana juice I hit the button to open the garage door. So as the door is opening I was falling. And all I could think about was that I was going to look up and see that kid, straddling his bicycle, standing right outside the garage, witnessing me falling down the stairs. And then he would ask about the car, and that would be the moment he would talk about for years to come. "Remember the day the neighbor lady fell down her garage stairs, freaked out, and started yelling at me?"

Thankfully there was no young boy on the other side of the garage door. Thankfully I wasn't hurt, just bruised. So, the banana juice tried to kill me, but I'll probably buy more for my little guy.

This fall occurred as I was leaving the house to pick up the boys from day care. As usual I stopped by my big four year old's room first. He was in the gym, running around with a basketball. He was dripping with sweat. My guy can sweat. I made the mistake of commenting on his wet head when I kissed him hello, which prompted him to spend the entire walk down the hall to my youngest's room whipping his head back and forth, spraying me with wetness. Totally disgusting. When we knocked on his door Alex came shooting out of his room and into my arms, sticking out his tongue. He was very proud of the apparently massive quantities of green paint he had eaten.

This is how we walked out of the church. Matthew running circles around me trying to spray me with his sweat and Alex spitting at me trying to show me his green tongue. I looked as though I had just taken a shower by the time we got to the car. While he thought it was funny to spray me, his mother, with sweat, my big four year old suddenly turned on the charm when he saw a friend from his class leaving the building and he actually took her arm and walked her to her car. What? I get the sweat and she gets the sweet? It was very cute, though. He is definitely smitten.

Once home it was snack time and the two year old totally freaked out. He is cutting his two year molars so he is cranky anyways, and it seemed as though I was not understanding his very specific dietary requests. He was getting angrier and angrier at our communication deficit and I was running back and forth to the fridge and pantry trying to appease him. Finally I stopped, looked him in the eye, and said, "I have just offered you ten different things to eat. Pick one. I do not work for you." Yes, I am embarrassed to tell you that I actually said that. I said, "I don''t work for you." to a two year old. Which prompted the big four and a half year old to look up from his Popsicle and state, "That's right, Alex, she works for me!" Sadly, I think they are both right. I work for both of them....

To recap my day:

normally a favorite snack. not this time.

• nasty fall down garage stairs while wearing grungy clothes and sporting dirty hair.
• covered in spit and sweat from darling boys competing for my attention on way out of day care.
• short order cook for a two year old.

band competitions and apple pies

Horses have really big eyes. I know this because I just had a totally freaky horse/car encounter. I was sitting in the Equinator at a red light, behind a horse trailer, when suddenly the door opens and this very large horse starts out. The trailer was very low to the ground, so I think he could have made it down to the road if he hadn't been pulled back by the rope tethering him to something inside the trailer. A brave man in the car next to me hopped out of his vehicle and pushed the horse back in, slamming the door before running back to his car. All before the light turned green. I am not sure if the driver of the horse trailer even knew what was going on. The whole episode took maybe all of 30 seconds. And the whole time that horse just stared at me. With these huge, brown, watery eyes. And he did not look happy.

I think that horse just wanted to get back outside. What a beautiful day! The sun is shining, the breeze is soft, and the temperature is just perfect. I love this time of year, and, obviously, so does my new horse friend. This is, hands down, my absolute favorite season.

The crisp air reminds me of band competitions and football games. I remember not caring about the game and totally not understanding the action on the field, until my friend Mark took it upon himself one season to assure that I understood the game. Sadly, I held on to very little of his teaching and so my husband had to practically start from square one when he first began to share his love of the game with me. I remember being a part of the high school marching band and waiting in the end zone for half time. Occasionally we had to scatter as the ball soared our way. And the "circle" before the band competitions. I cannot remember what we called them but I do remember that they had a name. It was a long standing tradition at my high school to gather in a circle before taking the field. Friends, coming together to remind each other that we were a team and we were all in this together. My little family has our own version of the "circle" now- my son calls them "family hugs". We hug hard and we hug often, reminding ourselves that we are all in this life together.

Sometimes this time of year I can hear drums from the marching band of the near by high school. When I do, I am instantly transported to the competition field. Sometimes I am transported to the college field, where I played horn just because there weren't any horn players. Having a section of two, neither of whom actually played the instrument, was a lot of fun. That was the year I learned a lot about clouds and flying and sports from my fellow horn player.

When I was a little girl I used to accompany my father to the band competitions that he judged. I would hang out in the press box and listen to the buzz of all the judges talking into their little tape recorders. Sometimes I would be pressed into service as a "runner", running the large envelopes of scores up and down the stands from the press box to the tabulators below. I loved sitting on that stool high in the press box, watching the older kids marching down below, amazed by the beautiful colors of the flags and the wall of sound when the entire band faced the box. To this day I still love a good company front!

Now a days Fall means pumpkin patches and apple picking with my son. It means baking apple pies and trick or treating. It means taking in a high school football game, a band competition, and a handful of Brown's games. While I fondly remember hanging out with my dad at those high school band shows my son will remember cheering with his dad at the Brown's games. He will remember baking apple pies with his mom. When I walk outside and inhale the crisp Autumn air I wonder which season my son will choose as his favorite?