You know its time to lose the baby fat when...

your eighteen month old child (Headbanger) comes up behind you, pulls up your t-shirt and slaps your muffin top because she likes to watch your fat jiggle. Its becoming a habit.

Sent to the Principal's Office

OK, technically not really, but she did call me up at home and politely chew me out. Here's what happened:

Beau Brummel's parents were out visiting us last week. Jedi invited them to come to his school to eat lunch with him twice. They went and brought their own lunches both times. No one gave them a hard time. Everyone had fun. Please note that last year at Jedi's old school which is K-3 parents are allowed to drop in any old day and eat lunch with their children. If you want to buy a school lunch for yourself (as a parent) you must tell the school in the morning so they have enough food for you. 

Today I went to Jedi's new school (4th-5th grade) and when you enter the school you must state your name and purpose for entering the school before they will buzz you in. ( Opal*Q, here to eat lunch with Jedi.) You are observed by a security camera as you do this. I went to the office and signed in and put a visitor sticker on. Then I went to the lunchroom and tried to buy lunch for myself and HotDog so we could eat with Jedi. I was told that a) I could not buy lunch because they do not prepare the food at the school, but have it delivered and so would not have enough and b) I must go to the office and get permission to eat lunch with Jedi. (I had already told them I was there to eat lunch with Jedi.) So I went back to the office and asked the secretary if I could eat lunch with Jedi, she said yes, but I couldn't buy lunch there. HotDog and I left and went to a nearby sandwich shop and got lunch and came back. We ate lunch with Jedi and had a good time. For some reason he likes to sit with the girls (who are on one end of the table) instead of the boys (who sit on the polar opposite end of the table with about 6 feet of space in between). During lunch, I noticed that the teachers and other adults were whispering among themselves and looking at us. I just assumed this was because parents don't often come to school to eat lunch with their children. 

When I got home I got a call from the principal of Jedi's school. Here's what she said:

It is inappropriate for me to come to school and eat lunch with Jedi and that they only allowed it for his grandparents because they were visiting from out of town. The school only lets parents eat lunch with their children if they are having trouble at home and need to spend more time with them. The school does not have enough room or food to support parents coming in to eat lunch with their children and she didn't want to open up that possibility. There is nothing written about this particular situation in the school handbook, but probably now there will be. By fourth grade the school wants the children to be more independent from their parents.

I was a little annoyed with the whole situation myself. What is the big fat deal if a child wants their parent to come to school and eat lunch with them once in a while? Honestly, have I ruined their push for independence by breaking this unwritten rule? 

Even though I like the schools in our area for the most part, I am starting to get a better idea of why we have so many home schoolers in this town. The bureaucracy is very strict without a real reason to be and makes it difficult for children to have educational experiences outside of school because they only allow for 5 days of educational experience outside of school for the entire school year. All I can say in conclusion is, "HUMPH!"

Meltdown Prevention

I really only have major meltdown problems with HotDog, but they are pretty major. I actually held him back from going into kindergarten this year because I didn't think he or his teacher could handle full day kindergarten with full strength meltdowns. On his first day of preschool I asked him how it went. He said, "Not so good. I had five fits." But the number of fits has gone down and virtually disappeared since he has been going to school every day. I thought this article was helpful.

Comme une lettre à la poste!

"Like a letter through the post". That's how I would comment on the school start this year. We used to struggle with Satsuki and Mae (that's how I will call my number 1 and 2, following "My neighbor Totoro" animation that we LOVE and all the Miyasaki movies in general that I strongly recommend to you). And since this year, Bouclette is going to school as well. She is 3 year old and was really impatient to go to school. We were a little afraid that she would be disappointed but no, not at all! She pulls her sisters behind her, being so enthousiastic in the morning, the 2 elder ones just follow and we don't need to rush anymore to catch the school bus. How wonderful... I am not the one who drags everyone now, a little girl full of energy and full of life is doing that for me, for us. Bouclette is exceptional!! She shines. There is no other word.

Giant bubbles

Recipy of the giant bubble for fun with the elder ones and fun for the dad. Sorry this one is in French, but I can translate 25% water, 5% sugar, 20% dishwashing liquid like Fairy (the green colored one), 10% glycerin, 40% water to mix slowly in this order without making bubbles of possible. Let it rest a few hours if you have made bubbles while mixing so that the little bubbles disappear. Then you need a big rope and 2 sticks. And the fun can begin.

Contemplating the Tomato

When we moved into our house last Christmas, we were excited about all of the space that we'd have, both inside and out. Where we live, everyone has at least an acre and we wanted to put our acre to good use. Flashlight planted 10 fruit trees and we're hoping to do more next year, along with blackberry and raspberry bushes. But the fruit we were really looking forward to was the tomato. Supermarket tomatoes in this country are crap. I've even splurged on expensive ones, only to be disappointed by weak flavor and odd textures. Earlier this year, we got very excited about tomatoes. We bought seeds for nine or ten varieties and started about 72 plants in a tray. We babied that tray, taking it outside during warm days and bringing it in every night. But then we put them in the ground way too late. While we had a number of plants develop, we didn't get any fruit. Then, just as other people's tomato plants stopped producing, we started getting tomatoes and I think that they're about hit their peak. I imagine that we'll be getting them until frost kills off our tomato patch. Here's a picture of Headbanger holding our first tomato, which was very oddly shaped. But even the weirdest-looking tomatoes taste fantastic and I've been freezing tasty tomato pulp for the winter. I get tremendous satisfaction from eating food that I've helped produce.

Did you plant or harvest anything this year?

Sweet Sweet Sleep

This past weekend, the four of us went to the mountains near Richfield, Utah to pick berries. It was a long day and the girls conked out in their car seats. It was one of the few peaceful moments we had that day.