Did I tell you about the ducks that have moved in across the street? There is a male and a female I believe. Occasionally, they wander over to my yard, where they are most welcome. My kids even set up the “pool” end of the slip-n-slide in our backyard in hopes the ducks would find that inviting. I think the ducks came for the water feature in my neighbor’s backyard. Incidentally, he is the city water director, so I find it perfectly reasonable that he is hosting a pair ducks.

And yes, it’s Mother’s Day today. And a perfectly good time for a little state of the nest address, don’t you think?

My ducks are not all lined up in a row, but I love them anyway. I enjoy these ages and stages–nearly 9 to almost 19. While I still cook and clean and sometimes play homework police, the kids are perfectly capable of accomplishing those tasks (after a fashion) on their own, so my job is mostly about showing up for them. Cheering them on. Supporting them. And still working on cramming a few more words of wisdom and life’s lessons down their throats before they leave me (at which point it will be my job to sit back and love them and pray like crazy for them as they find their own ways in the world. I do not intend on telling them what to do at that point, unless they ask. And even then, maybe not).

My oldest bird is readying himself to leave the nest and I’m trying to adjust to that idea and prepare myself for the changes that lie ahead. But I’m busy enough I think I can, on most days, distract myself with the here and now in hopes the time he is gone will fly by quickly. That does not mean I won’t miss him. It just means I am preparing myself to survive his being gone.

In spite of having just arrived at that part of the book in Freakonomics where I learn that according to statistics, my work as a mother doesn’t matter (yeah, right!), I’m still trying to be aware of what I can do better and take steps in that direction every day. I’m also trying to feel sure in what parts I get right so I don’t beat myself up too badly. Some days are better than others, but I’m trying to do my best and praying hard that God will make up the difference.

My kids are good kids. Even the ones who struggle. I enjoy observing them, discovering new things about the way they think and the way they see the world. I love that each one of them knows how to be kind and be a good friend. I just love being their mother–being invited along for the ride during this part of their lives.

So now, despite the fact they did not clean up the downstairs yesterday as asked, I’m going to go make crepes for breakfast. It’s their favorite. Doing this for them on Mother’s Day reminds me to be less selfish and helps me remember to be grateful for my blessings–in whatever form they come to me.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Remember this?

The results are in. You can read about it here and here.

I am bugged.

It didn’t pass by the required 80% (I really have a hard time believing proponents garnered 78%) so they worked out a “compromise” behind closed doors and decided to allow denim and thought that would make everyone happy. Essentially they changed the rules. We didn’t even get to vote on that one.

What am I going to do now? Home school?

My daughter is simply not comfortable in collared shirts (none of my children is, they won’t wear long-sleeved either–except to church) and she will not wear them. So now the school has taken students (I know mine isn’t the only one) who’ve been following the current dress standard and dressing modestly and have waged a battle with them over their clothes in order to crack down on kids who dress like hookers or gang bangers.

I resent being dragged into a battle with my daughter I am reluctant to fight. I’m very much a “choose your battle” type mom and this one is not on my list of choices.

Modesty is something I believe in. I will fight over that. But in my opinion this is just extreme and I’m not in the mood to fight with my child over something I don’t believe in myself.

What would you do?

p.s. You know what else has me steamed this morning? The Myanmar military regime that first wouldn’t let aid in to their desperate people and then when they finally did decided to confiscate the aid. Who are these people?

In case you were wondering, the reports of the demise of my trusty laptop were not exaggerated. (Where are you oh universe? I am waiting.)

Just so you know, the universe was not my first option:

Me: I need a new computer.

Husband: We can’t afford a new computer right now. We have a missionary getting ready to leave.

Me: I know. But I need a new computer. And when that missionary comes home he will need a computer because he will be going to the university. He can buy mine from me at a reasonable price and I can get an upgrade. (I’m brilliant, am I not?)

Husband: Why do you need a new computer?

Me: Because I use it for so many things. I need it to pay the bills. I need it for my volunteer work. I need it to write. That’s like a second job.

Husband: How much money have you made writing?

Me: Thirty-five dollars. (Supposedly. I still haven’t seen the check–it must still be in the mail.)

Husband: That will get you a new computer.   

So it’s not that I don’t love you–I do. But my reality is this: I don’t blog at work. And when I’m home (if I’m home at all*), I have to fight four kids–syncing their iPods, studying for AP tests, and IMing their friends–in order to have face time with a computer. And that’s on the old sticky-keyed desktop in the basement. Ack!

    Miss you. Wish you were here. Frankly, on most days I wish I were here!       

*In the next three weeks we have 16 ball games, 5 concerts, and 2 graduations to attend–sometimes all at the same time. That’s not counting the usual churchy stuff.  

Oops. Wrong game. 

Let’s play a little guessing game.

Luke just completed his final interview and submitted his mission papers.

Where do you think he will go? 

We’re having a little contest at Luke’s mission blog (no, he will not be blogging while on his mission, but we’re both blogging about the experience of his getting ready to go and then I will post excerpts from his letters on it while he is gone, for family and friends who are interested). 

Please come here to submit your best guess.

You know me, I’ll keep you posted.

For b., who went thongless on Thursday. Here’s to the good old days:

For c jane, who seemed a bit curious about just who will be alpha male after The Chief arrives:

For me. Because my recycled laptop (you know, the one whose battery smelled like BO) died.

Dear Universe. I blog therefore I am. Therefore I absolutely need a new Mac. It doesn’t even have to be a Macbook Air. (I could be really happy with the new MacBook 2.4).

CW

Neat-o!

Today I invite you to weigh in on the global food crisis and what it might mean for you (heavy stuff, I know) over at Segullah. Because I’m wondering if you are an ant or a grasshopper? I hope you’ll drop by and toss in your two cents (or more, as the case may be; have you noticed the price of eggs lately?)

But first, and in completely unrelated news (well, unless you consider how many pints of crab apple jelly I’ll be putting up this fall), here’s a sneak peek at my favorite tree:

I told you it was going to be a good year for crab apples. Happy Spring!

Happy Birthday to my second born, Z~.

Let me tell you about Z~. One year during high school he decided he wanted to run track. Now Z~ is a pretty talented kid and a lot of things come naturally to him. In fact I admire how when he decides he wants to do anything new he goes right after it and just does it. I wish I were that bold.

But running track is the first thing I’d seen him do that didn’t seem to come easily to him. He actually finished dead last in every race. I’d love to hear him report on his results, however, because although he finished last, his time improved with every single race. When we went to his meets to watch him run I also loved how everyone stopped whatever they were doing (because by now everyone else had finished and moved on) to cheer him to the finish line.

I cheered him at the finish line because I was proud of him for completing the race (finishing is not something that comes easily to me) and for simply running.

Another thing I love about Z~ is his candor. He has a pretty even temperament, but every now and then when he is in a mood he can be a little short with me or a little unfair. But he always apologizes to me when after the cloud passes. Sometimes the apology comes, coincidentally, neatly timed along with a request to go do something with a friend.

“Are you saying ’sorry’ because you’re really sorry or because you really want to go hang with your friends?” I ask.

“A little of both,” is his frequent reply.

I really admire a kid who will tell it like it is.

Finally, Z~ is generous. He came into some Miley Cyrus tickets and had big plans to turn a nice profit on e-Bay (which was, you know, a fairly lucrative prospect before her fall from grace). Instead he chose–completely on his own and under no pressure from me–to sell them to some friends of mine who had only been able to purchase enough tickets to take one of their two daughters who were dying to go. He walked away from some serious money (for a teenager) in order to make one little girl very, very happy! What a great guy.

Happy Birthday Z~!

It’s going to be a bumper crop. Wanna come see? 

In other news…

The presidential campaign can be reduced to any number of terms, but these sum it up nicely for me.

I think I’ll skip the main course and just order dessert.

Oh! Wait a minute. I already did:

Guess what we had for treats tonight after Family Home Argument?

Dark Chocolate Linguine over Breyers Natural Vanilla. Topped with strawberries and whipped cream, of course.

Delicious!

p.s. Press here for music.

As if my Tuesday weren’t enough, here are a few more good things going on chez moi: 

While waiting for the pharmacist to bottle up five little pills that would cost me a whopping $95 (that’s with insurance) I had to pick up a pair of baseball cleats for the youngest and since Payless shoes were buy-one/get-one-half-off decided to look for church shoes for L~. You have to understand something here, I don’t do a very good job picking out clothing and apparel for L~ even when she’s with me, so shopping without her is pretty much taboo. I knew what I was looking for was something (shoes with soles, of course) she could wear to church but that looked like anything but church shoes (which we’ve been looking for for months now). I tried on a few pair (we wear the same size) but each of them had at least one feature I knew she would hate.

And then I saw them.

Grey stars on black canvas shoes that looked like a cross between Converse and simple pair of flats. Topped with a button and not a bow.

I left them out where L~ would see them when she came home from school and just ask me how long I’ve waited to nail something so perfectly. “They’re the best!” she practically gushed. That is high praise indeed from someone with such a unique sense of her own style.

Whew!

Today Luke sang with the chamber choir at the State Solo & Ensemble Festival. Straight superiors once again. They competed with advanced, collegiate-level music and really sounded great. Utah has some very competitive choir programs and Provo High’s is one of the best. Way to go Singers!

Z~ humbly informed us–as he rushed home from his day date just in time to get ready for the big dance–that we might want to make sure we hung around after promenade until they announced the royalty. So I wrapped myself up in the thickest quilt I could find and parked myself on the statuary outside the steps of the city library.

First attendant. (Z~, not his date)

Cool!

Both boys went to prom and they both looked mighty fine and I know they both treated their dates fine and that makes me proudest of all.

In other news:

K~ is playing baseball for the first time and L~ has been blessed with the best softball coach ever (which is sooooo nice after last year’s worst softball coach ever). My May calendar now has something scheduled for every night but two–and that’s without the practices. And of course on some of those nights we have to be in two places at once. (So happy neither of them has a game on the night of high school graduation!)

That’s OK. I kind of enjoy hanging out at the ball park.

I finishedCrossing to Safety. That means as soon as my quilt is done and the garden is in I will return to blogging.

Oh yeah. I cheated. Oh well.

And finally, guess who puts in his mission papers one week from tomorrow?

Stay tuned for photos from Prom (hopefully, WordPress can be kind of a pain when it comes to photos Yay! I did it!). Coming soon: a little friendly competition to guess where Luke will go.

Z~ and his date at the pre-prom photo shoot

Z~ and his date at the promenade

group hug

Z~ after being crowned first attendant to the Prom King

Luke and his date at promenade

group hug

Disclaimer: Before anyone points out that in that unfair way parents have of not documenting the lives of each of their children equally, I may have not given each kid the same amount of face time, may I point out that as a middle child, Z~ probably deserves some catch-up photos at this point and well, he was first attendant. Luke gets to go by his first name (he’s of legal age) and besides, I wasn’t privy to the location of his pre-prom photo shoot.

Apparently a group of well-meaning parents has proposed a new dress code for my children’s junior high school. Typically I like to present the facts, hear what you have to say, then weigh in with my opinion. I apologize if my snarky comments detract from the objectivity here (especially if any one I know was on the committee) but I have to say it like I see it. Here is the proposal as released to the media:

The purpose of the committee was to propose a higher dress standard for the students of _____________. The reason behind proposing a higher dress standard was parental concern over the following areas:

–Gang affiliation dress/causing concern for safety
–Tiers of class/unfair class distinction between students
–Immodest, inappropriate, and offensive dress/that was not distinguished in current dress code.

We feel strongly that the classroom should be a learning environment and we would like for the teachers to be easily able to enforce infractions without having to take their attention away from what they are trying to accomplish in their classroom. We believe, from the research we have done, our students will be safer, have more confidence, excel in their academics, and there will be less discipline problems for the teachers.

Proposed Dress Standard
Shirts
Collard (bwahahahaha–do they make shirts out of collard greens these days? I didn’t know.) shirts required, polo, dress shirt, or blouse
No logo or writing may be worn on shirts
Sweaters may be worn but collard shirt must be visible
Shirt must be long enough to cover the waistband of pants/skirts when sitting (do pants and skirts sit? or maybe it’s the shirt?)
Shirts must be buttoned. (Whew! I was afraid they would have to be buttond)
Tee shirt, tank or long sleeved shirt may be worn underneath the buttoned collared shirt (third time’s a charm)
Shirts must be modest and fit appropriately
(administration reserves the right to determine the dress code as appropriate)

Bottoms (Do they mean by this “attire to cover one’s bottom half?”)
Any shade of khaki, brown, navy, green or black pants or slacks is acceptable (put your pink pants away skater boy)
Shorts, skirts, and Capri’s (the Capri’s what?) in these colors are acceptable but must be knee length or longer
No pants with holes, fraying, slashing or threading may be worn
No jeans, no sweatpants, no lounge or fleece pants
Belt is required if needed to meet pant requirements
Pants must be an appropriate length and not drag the floor
Pants must be worn at the waist and properly fit the waistline even if covered by a shirt
Wearing oversized or baggy pants is prohibited

Shoes
No slippers are allowed
Shoes with a sole are required

Jewelry
Shall not be worn in any pierced body parts other than the ears
Anything distracting, or may present a safety risk, or threat is not acceptable–including chains and spikes

Discuss.