Sturm Haus

shhh

I stepped outside for a few minutes tonight.

The thermostat said it was -6°. I don’t know what the windchill factor was. It’s going to get worse, and worse, and worse through tomorrow.

Tonight I layered up, wrapped my face in a wool scarf, wore the expedition coat. My boots are old now, I suppose, but when they were new I once stepped out of my car and into ankle-deep slush at the curb and didn’t notice until I glanced down. Waterproof, well-insulated, thick soles. Tonight my toes felt chilled after about 3 minutes.

A local science museum suggested we imagine we’re Mars explorers for the next 48 hours  — we’ll be living in similar conditions. The stars were twinkly and the sky was very quiet. It’s too cold for planes to fly. Too cold for trains, too.

The streets were silent. No traffic, no sirens. No dogs barking. It’s not all that windy right now, at least not in our yard. The trees rustled a little, and that was about it.

Charlie whisked out the back door and then right back in before tunneling into his crate, looking grateful. I am in bed now, with a big mug of tea and the cat in my lap, all our bedroom doors open to make sure the kids rooms don’t get too cold.

I’ll be glad when it’s all over.

a foot of snow would be better

I felt a little bad for the school district today. They made a preemptive announcement that they will NOT be closing school tomorrow for cold. It’s evidently been much discussed, and at dinner Bel shared all kinds of interesting information, like...

• “Did you know a piece of the polar vortex is coming to Illinois mom?” (I envisioned it packing a carry-on suitcase and booking a hotel)
• Her teacher will let everyone wear snowpants and coats at their desks if they want
• She’s going to wear her snowboots all day tomorrow, and also a hoodie over a sweatshirt over a fleece
• If they lose power at the school, all the kids are to troop over to our church (about 1/2 a mile away) to stay warm until they can get picked up (I could tell she likes this idea a lot)
• her teacher told them all these things because they are “super awesome 5th graders”, which made me smile - Mr. G is pretty neat, and also very smart to turn this into an exciting occasion with the potential for an emergency field trip!

The schools are very sensibly opening buildings early so kids can wait for the first bell inside, etc. A neighbor gave Otto a lift home today. Jon and I will flex our schedules to drop him off/pick him up tomorrow and probably all next week. Granted, the district HAS closed for cold before, but I suspect they’re saving that for next week when the forecast says we’ll have a couple of days with negative highs. Like, a high of -6 degrees.

 

If you need me I’ll be in the corner wearing a wool wrap over a sweater over a turtleneck over pants over leggings over wool socks over boots (and now you know where she gets it from).

 

 

(Here are my children standing on the icy shore of Lake Michigan at 10:30 on a January night to watch the lunar eclipse. Pretty sure wind chill was single digits. They’re smiling. I have a hard time not supporting the schools staying open during severe cold when we think this kind of thing is fun. That said - be safe out there!)

fourteen is good

Otto is having hot lunch today, which means he’ll have pizza, a cookie, and an Izze. That’s his go-to meal. Jon said “Yes, go ahead, eat pizza until you’re finally sick of it and then you’ll have to eat something else” and then he did that exaggerated evil laugh thing that parents do to be funny.

Otto said, “no, no, that won’t happen until I get my adult taste buds, which is when you drink coffee and your taste buds burn off and you start liking coffee, prunes, and the taste of despair.”

We parents are losing all the snark wars these days.

He stayed up with me to watch Dumplin’ last night (which was funny and sweet), but don’t ask if he liked it - he won’t admit to it if he did. In between commenting on scenes he told me about bits and pieces of things he’s thinking about — mostly gaming or history related. Like that he won’t ruin the ending of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate for me even though he knows I won’t ever get to it myself.

This morning we looked at his birth announcement and I showed him a baby picture and we compared 20” long to the length of his arms right now (much shorter). Tonight we’ll have KitKat cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream after dinner, and he’ll have a few presents to open, and life is pretty delicious.

out of whack

On Wednesday morning I flew to Kansas in order to spring my mom from the clink rehab. She had ankle surgery and had to spend a long time there to heal.

I got her home Wednesday afternoon and we’ve been busy getting  her resettled. Doctor’s visit, two visits from the home health agency, restocking with groceries, etc.

I know I told the kids I’d be leaving, but evidently Otto felt unprepared for my absence and the disruption to his daily routine. He had a Very Bad Day on Thursday, and I got a call around 4 p.m. from school.

(I now reflexively say ”oh shit” the minute I see the school come up on caller ID. That reaction is generally appropriate.)

So we FaceTimed last night and talked about things for awhile, and then tonight he FaceTimed me again. Tonight he was in a much better mood. He chatted with me. He chatted with grandma. He showed me Charlie, who was lying next to him on the couch where Otto could scratch his ears.

While rubbing Charlie’s head he said, ”Annabel always THINKS the animals prefer her, but I take care of Charlie a lot. And Lilypad comes and sits on my bed sometimes.”

Which is a direction I did not expect the sibling rivalry to go, to be honest. But I can tell Charlie likes all the ear scratching, so who am I to stop it?

Besides, I know that Charlie secretly likes me best because I’m the one who buys the treats. Heh. Don’t tell Annabel.

things we take seriously

Well, I got sick.

I battled it off as long as I could, but finally succumbed yesterday.

Today I made it half a day at work.

Tonight I am dosing myself with water and a hot toddy, and knitting while listening to an audiobook.

I already made Bel a little cowl to wear this fall — easy and quick out of a colorful variegated acrylic that will wash if it gets icky. I have enough to make her a hat, I think, but I have to work out the math for it so the patterns match and the hat fits. Tonight I started another cowl, one for me that is a lot more complicated with lace and cabling. It’s been awhile since I did anything like it, so fingers crossed that it goes well! I made myself a little chart to track rows, since that’s usually where I get lost.

Bel has a presentation tomorrow. Fifth graders are doing a version of Sharktank where they come up with inventions to raise money for a charity. She and her team developed an idea to make and sell pins to raise money for Ronald McDonald House. She’s pretty nervous, so I had her run through the slides a couple of times, and we practiced deep breathing. Otto had to work on a presentation too, adding some depth to some slides for ELA. Every year the schools ramp up the kids’ access to and use of Google apps, so they use Docs and Slides and Mail, and will keep doing that as they go through high school. Bel gave each of the slides in her presentation a different transition. *I* don’t even give my presentation slides anything but the default transition.

After we practiced the slides she spent half a hour deciding what to wear to look “business-like,” which mostly turns out to be her orchestra concert uniform plus a cute headband and wedge-heeled sandals. If I had a little suit jacket for her she’d wear it. Time to expand her wardrobe!

Otto is spending most Saturdays at the robotics club and really likes it. Last weekend I went in to pick him up and caught him using a screwdriver to add wheels to a platform. He’s been learning some new software too, and never complains about having to get up on time to make it to Downers Grove by 10 so he can work with the team until 4. The winter challenge is to build a robot that can pick up and move whiffle balls, and he said they’re using a vaccuum. And now you know as much as I do about what he does on Saturdays at robotics.

go slow

Ugh - it's been rocky lately at work. The traveling I did in October plus a couple recent crises are straining my coping skills. I've got work to do this weekend, so Jon and the kids left me behind for a road trip to Nana's house, which made me sad until I realized their absence means I'm forced to take some serious introvert time. Some serious introvert time is probably what I need after having a very people-y month last month.

Life goes up, life goes down. As Kathy at my last library used to say, when things get bumpy, go slow.

Jon's traveling for work lately too, which is also stressful. Today I snagged two cookbooks that my children will not appreciate, but made me think I might survive being the dinner maker while he's on the road:

I recently explained the concept of Buddha bowls to Otto, and he hmmmed as if interested. Building one would let him pile in the things he likes (rice, veggies, protein) and avoid the things he doesn't (anything creamy, spicy, wrong textures), so that could maybe work. Bel is more willing to try things so she might enjoy the sauces. Slow cooker dinners always SOUND like a great idea but they're a hard sell with my kids, plus the timing doesn't usually work out, and yet I can't help but keep looking for a recipe that would solve all my problems. One pot dinner, cooked and ready to go when I get home, is a dream that will not die!

Number one on my to do list for tomorrow is to go vote. I normally do early voting, and usually earlier even than the weekend before election day, but it's been busy! The local precinct captain dropped by on Halloween to make sure I was going to vote, offered a sample ballot and a list of times/places to go vote -- useful stuff. That was nice. I'll feel better once I've crossed that off my list.

Another thing on my list this weekend: watch this documentary about Itzhak Perlman.

There's a bunch of other stuff on the list too, including getting rid of outgrown kids' clothes, swapping out my closet, general cleaning, some mild reorganization... The usual. Easy to get overwhelmed, but as I get older I am learning to pick a thing to do (anything!), get started, and then keep moving. Slow progress is still progress.

Hi.

Work. School. Family. Kids.

Some things have changed, but the essentials haven’t.

Tonight I went to parent/teacher night for Otto, who is 25% into 8th grade.

EIGHTH. GRADE.

Someone stop the time machine, I want to get off.

But it’s good - he’s great, this year is going well, our big problem right now is that he’s bored and we’ve got to move him up into more challenging classes. This is a problem I can live with. He came up with a job for himself in one class. He is the “otto-matic door opener”, and hops up to open and close the door for classmates. So... more advanced math class? Yes please!

Bel is into her 5th grade year, which seems even more impossible. My sweet-cheeked baby has grown into a caring, funny, confident tween with good friends and great ideas. Tonight at dinner she told me she and a couple of classmates are planning a new club to be held every other Monday. They will focus on learning about marine life and making crafts, and at the end of it they’ll have a little model coral reef including sea turtles made of discarded egg cartons (the first project). I can’t wait to see how that goes. I asked what the next steps are, and she said to talk to teachers to get a room and a sponsor. I’m on the hook to buy supplies. I can do that.

Blogging isn’t as much of a thing as it used to be, but I find myself writing long posts on Facebook that I would rather keep... somewhere else. So maybe it’s time to dust this thing off and see if it still fits.

losing it

We keep losing things lately.

- Annabel's watch-phone thing.

- My reading glasses.

- Otto's swim trunks and rash guard.

- The "my mind" joke would be too easy, but probably also appropriate.

Jon is finally home again after 4 intense weeks of travel (for him) and solo parenting (for me). The apartment is a wreck. And all I want to do this week is sleeeeeeeeep.

Last night I dreamt that someone loaned me their Porsche, and I spent a long time driving it around town, worrying that I would crash it. But I never did! Was I Ubering people around? I don't know. It felt like a work thing, but only in that weird dream-sense way. I have a big work project to chew through right now (a building project), so maybe that's what the car dream was about? I don't want to crash it and I have to stay in my lane?

The kids are, as usual, growing like weeds. Summer seems to really trigger growth of all sorts for my two. They're outside a lot, active a lot, socializing a lot. Their legs stretch ever longer and their brains go into hyperdrive as they relax and play and swim. Annabel is diving into big chapter books - last week I bought her The BFG so that she can read it before the movie comes out, and she has also appropriated the books I bought for Otto. Otto, in his turn, took a book from Jon's to-read shelf (Prisoners of Geography) and read it methodically and thoughtfully. He liked it a lot, and it occurred to me today that perhaps he DID inherit some of my genes after all (International Relations majors represent!).

What with all the husband traveling and solo parenting and dream-time downshifting, I shouldn't be surprised that I have completely lost so many important (and, quite frankly, expensive) things. Hopefully they will start showing back up now that Jon's home and life is a bit less hectic. I'm used to living without a rational brain, but I miss my reading glasses...

wheely fearless

So. Annabel has been a little resistant to learning to ride her bike without training wheels. We've been working on it with her since last spring.

Last weekend it all clicked and she took off, two-wheeling like a pro around the court and down the sidewalk. Good, right? Jon and I think "yay!" We can plan family outings on the Prairie Path, etc.

Tonight we got home and I dropped everyone off, then headed to the grocery store for a few things. Annabel got out her bike, and Jon told her she could ride around the neighborhood with her friend from across the court. They put on their helmets and were off.

I came back and unloaded groceries, and while I was finishing up Annabel appeared, cruised casually up to the garage, and hopped off while chewing something. "What did you find to eat on a bike ride?" I asked, slightly alarmed. I'm thinking she ran into a friend, or had a piece of leftover Halloween candy in her bike basket, or something like that.

"I got a cookie at Jewel-Osco but don't tell daddy."

I felt my eyes get big. "You went to JEWEL? Why don't you want to tell Daddy?"

"Because I got four cookies but I didn't have any money so I couldn't buy any for Daddy."

She RODE HER BIKE TO JEWEL-OSCO with her friend, parked, and her friend stayed with the bikes while Annabel ran into the store and back to the bakery. Normally they have cookie samples out, but the sample tray was empty so Annabel asked someone if they had any more, and they fell under the spell of her big brown eyes and GAVE HER FOUR COOKIES. She kept two, gave her friend two, and they rode home.

I can't decide how to feel. Proud? Appalled? Terrified? Amused? A little of each, maybe. I can't believe I didn't run into her. I can't imagine what I'd done if I had.

It makes me feel a little better to know that lots of kids ride bikes around this area to go to McDonalds, shop at the stores in the strip mall, and so on. I mean usually they're older - middle school and up - but it's normal. And she's ridden around with us enough to know how to get there safely.

Luckily for Annabel, her daddy's favorite cookies were on sale and I'd grabbed a bag while I was there, so she didn't have to worry about him missing out.

Unluckily for Annabel, we'll have a serious discussion this weekend about where she can and can't go without her parents. Da Jewel will be on the *can't* list from now on.

On the other hand, Aldi is right next door and less hectic, and it might be nice to be able to send her over with a list and some cash... Hm...

(ps: we live behind a big strip mall anchored by the grocery store - no streets were crossed by the adventurers)

(pps: anyone have any experience with those GPS tracker wristband watch type things you can get for kids at Verizon?)

(ppps: I owe Jewel-Osco for some cookies)

cookie daze

Bel sold 82 boxes of Girl Scout cookies last month, and last night we finished sorting and labeling them all for delivery. Jon lined the boxes up in the hallway, I got out a Sharpie and post it notes, and Bel went to town.

 

Two of those boxes were Thin Mints for her brother. "I think Girl Scouts should make THICK Mint cookies too" he said this morning, after getting out the label maker and making sure each of his boxes was properly stickered with his name. 

He is a month past his 11th birthday and a half-inch shy of 5' tall. Bel is only a few scant inches behind him. They will probably burn off the cookies I included with their lunches before they get back to their classrooms from the lunch room.