Sunday Morning Quality Time

We are not a religious family. Jay and I both have a sense of wonder and awe when it comes to the world around us, but we have what seem to be similar skeptical views toward Religion and Church. We live in a county with LOTS of churches - especially the non-denominational Christian type that seem to be very into kids and reaching out to people in the community - even in the schools. I want my kids to be able to articulate their own philosophies regarding faith or whatever you want to call it, because I know that if we don't intentionally dig and then attempt to fill that hole in each girl, we will be leaving it up to the first friend they encounter at school who asks them to come along to church with them. We respect everyone's beliefs, but don't want to leave our kids' faith journeys in the hands of others - or leave those journeys up to chance.





So, this year, it is a goal of mine to figure out how we want to awaken their appreciation for the world around them, foster their sense of goodness, and define our Sunday mornings as time to spend happily and peacefully as a family. Maybe these mornings will someday involve some sort of something a little more structured, but for now, I like the idea of a walk in the woods, a spin on the merry-go-round and a stop to throw rocks into the Lewis River together.

Fun Days

The end of May is here, and with that comes Hockinson Fun Days! I had to miss the parade this year because of my Saturday morning biology lab, but we hit the pancake breakfast at the firehouse by 7:30 AM and then rounded out the day with some fun over at Oscars. I love when that time of year comes when we grab a cold bottle of wine, load the kids onto the lawn tractor and go a-visiting up and down the street. (In the one photo, there's a good view of Oscar and Deborah's McDonald's Playland. No wonder Oscar is now Maggie's favorite neighbor.) They also have some baby robins that are conveniently hanging out in a tree adjacent to the playground, only about 5 feet off the ground for easy viewing.

What a Freakin' Gorgeous Day!!

Look at my children, frolicking among the spring growth at Yard-n-Garden Land! Spring is truly here, and today is the best day we have had in 2009. Time to break out the SPF60! Oh... April Fool's!

It's just another sucky day of steady rain... but we did sneak out the other day in between showers. The kids are in desperate need of sunny days and space to run around. I know, July will come soon enough...

Top Ten List #3 - The Blizzard of Ought Eight

It started out as novel - Snow! In the Portland area! At freakin' Christmas! There were snowball fights, exuberant bursts of laughter, hopes for a white Christmas... Then, it just kept coming. And sticking. And freezing. Smiles turned downward. Chains were mounted. Portland closed down for about a week (except for Oregon Ballet Theater, but that's another post). No work. No shopping. No separation from one's family except when locked in desperation in the bathroom for a few minutes.

For the most part, we did all right. It had the makings of a survival novel, but alas, we did not need to call in Sebastian Junger to write about our storm. Nobody died or had to eat cat food or go without power. We did not need to burn the kids' toys for heat. In fact, there were blessedly few arguments, although I don't doubt that each adult present quietly cursed at least one of the others at some point. The biggest inconvenience was that we all had to pile into the truck if we wanted to get off the property - so getting to Starbucks was a bit of a bitch. And, it did cause Christmas to have a bit of a "What, another day at home with my family? How quaint!" kind of feel to it.

This video is from a ride Jay and I took up into the hills just east of us. It was lovely and will be my favorite video in August when I need to cool down.

Yeeeeeeeeahhhhhhhh, Buddy!

Sunday afternoon, Jay came around the corner of the house and said, "Hey, Babe. Do you wanna have some fun?"

"...but, Jay, the girls are here..."

"No, I mean do you wanna dig a really big hole? I'll watch the girls."

And, there you have an offer that no sensible girl in her right mind could EVER refuse. Seriously. I don't know how I got through so many years of living without operating some relatively heavy machinery because I'm tellin' you - It's (insert expletive for emphasis here)-in' awesome.

Now, you may wonder why we wanted to dig a really big hole. The short answer (and really the only one that's necessary) is because we had the chance to. Oscar from next door finally came through on the excavator to dig out the trenches for the water/sewer lines for the outbuilding. He did that part of the work because it actually required the fine motor skills of a brain surgeon. Then, he agreed to leave the machine here for a few hours so we could have some fun. We dug a hole just so we could shove some brush in and fill it up. Jay tore out a few tree stumps like the Incredible Hulk and Yeti combined. I only wish we had an old rusty beater car that we could have interred. If you can zoom in, look at my face in this picture. That is the goofy look that was plastered on there even as rivulets of sweat dripped down my torso and my ass went numb. There's just something I can't explain about it... If my husband could offer up an excavator as foreplay every day, we'd be the copulation champions of Clark County.

Clark County "Hidden" Treasure

Nautilus is headquartered in Vancouver - right near one of my favorite local shopping areas. If you look at the signs as you're driving around the parking lot, you see an arrow pointing to something that says, "The Backyard." The Backyard includes an artificial turf football/soccer field, softball field, track, basketball courts, bleachers, scoreboards, picnic tables. There's plenty of parking, and it's open to the public (you can even reserve the fields if you want to plan ahead). I've been there a few times with the girls, and yesterday the whole family went - and at no point have I ever seen more than one other small cluster of people there. Now, I don't know that Nautilus really aggressively advertises that this wonderland is available for any old Joe off the street and his rugrats - but it IS. (It's kind of hard to find much to link to that explains the Backyard - here's something at least. See the lower right-hand corner of the page.) And, with the kids - anywhere you can take them where they have the freedom to run around an open space at will, it's awesome.

It's funny to see the personalities come out when we do this type of thing, though. Ellie picks up a ball and starts running around laughing and "playing fetch." Maggie picks up a ball and pretends that she's a princess holding on to a precious egg that must not be dropped, thrown, kicked or otherwise abused. She likes to twirl around and get lost in whatever little fantasy she's dreamed up in the moment. Meanwhile, Ellie's running laps, kicking field goals, shooting three-pointers... well... Don't want to start pigeonholing anyone, now do I? But, we have decided that Ellie will be a soccer player and Mags will probably be a Jazzercise instructor. (I got her a pair of black leggings the other day. Today she wanted to wear them and her sneakers so she could pretend to be just that.)

You Can Lead a Girl to a Pony, but You Can't Make Her Ride

Sunday morning we made our annual trek to the Clark County Fair. We (the girls and I) are planning to go again with neighbor Susie on Friday, but this was our family outing for the weekend. The fair is fun - I'm getting used to it after a few years. It's different from and similar to the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show (which has morphed into the New Jersey State Fair - You go, Sussex County!)

While you won't find waffles and ice cream (sadly), you will find LOTS of farm animals and farm people - which send the girls into extreme emotions - whether those reactions will be excited swoons and whoops or terrified screams and parental leg-climbing is sometimes very, very difficult to predetermine. This year, I'd say the big winners were the goats. I would not be surprised if someday we have little "naaa naaa" sounds echoing through our yard from behind the veggie garden (where Jay has already decided our goat area will be).

We were disappointed that due to insurance costs, (human) kids are no longer permitted to climb in and play with the baby pigs. They are pretty fun to watch, though, except if you can read. The hand-lettered sign above them says in four months they will weigh 295 pounds and be ready for slaughter.

Maggie was so excited when she saw the little ponies on the pony ride that she actually tried to cut in line. I was excited, too - I carefully kept myself from reminding her that she freaked out last year before her turn. This year, she was PSYCHED. I told her that we'd have a helper get her on the pony. She picked her pony. Then the man in the red shirt came to lift her up and FREAK OUT FREAK OUT FREAK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! The legs were a-kickin', princess shoes were a-flyin', and she was screaming as if I had just thrust her into the waiting arms of a child molester. We recouped our $5 and went to the adjacent dairy barn for an ice cream cone and a breather.

Of course, Jay was holding Ellie during the whole escapade, and when we turned to leave, she started screaming "HORSIE! HORSIE!" So, Jay figured, "What the hell..." and got in line. And yeah, she rode the horse. She was about half the size of the next smallest kid. Then, to illustrate the difference between Dads and Moms - Jay stopped walking around in the pony circle with her. There's my BABY riding around on a pony without an adult holding on to her. I could not have felt more proud and scared at the same time if she went up in the freakin' space shuttle.

Poor Mags. We might try again Friday, and I'll see if I can get her up there without the man in the red shirt. She did, however, find a horse that she liked riding very much.

She also redeemed herself by riding a kiddie ride all by herself after we rode on the merry-go-round together. Oh my God, what am I going to do when it's time for them to get their driver's licenses?

Hitting the Summer Stride

Yesterday was a really great Sunday - I was actually struck mid-day with the realization that we were heading toward a near-perfect day according to my personal perfect day criteria. I didn't say anything to keep from jinxing it midway through...

We all woke up early and decided to head out for breakfast, but being weary of the Kountry Cafe, we set out for a slightly more cultured (table cloths) yet laid-back (Hawthorne) breakfast at Bread and Ink Cafe in Portland. We got there minutes after they opened, so we had most of the restaurant to ourselves. The high potential for the day became obvious when the next table to sit down was a couple with FOUR kids, thus reducing any noise or commotion that my two little angels might produce to a mere buzz in the ear of other patrons. Maggie had perhaps the best Belgian waffles that I have ever tasted, and I got to eat a good amount of them because they were served with a heaping portion of whipped cream, and since said whipped cream was on her plate, I had a hard time convincing her that the waffles were the main point of the meal...

After breakfast, we parked at the corner of 37th and SE Stark in the shade of a tree next to my old apartment and crossed the street to Laurelhurst Park to play for a bit. The girls liked the playground, and especially enjoyed communing with the ducks and dogs. Ellie "entertained" countless passers-by by talking with the ducks. It went like this: She'd get a little too close to a duck. The duck would quack, "Get away from me, you little cretin!" Ellie would think he was saying, "Hi, my name is Mac. What's yours?" To which Ellie would shout, "WACK! WACK! WACK!" until the duck hopped in the pond and swam away.

After the park, Jay suggested that we go to Portland Nursery to look for bean plants. The Meager Garden has three bean plants that are all doing fabulously well, but once it became clear that they were thriving, I remembered that the joy of having bean plants in the first place is getting to pick and eat lots of beans. Three plants, no matter how fabulous, aren't going to cut it. So, Saturday, I drove around Clark County looking for bean starts to no avail. But, Portland Nursery is a place like none other, and I was able to successfully score 5 new 4" pots, each with 3 starts, thereby boosting our potential bean production exponentially - right when I was about to give up on finding any.

All that activity, and it was still only 10 in the morning. When we got home, the weather was sunny and hot, and Jay was able to spend some time with Ric's tractor mowing the "front 40" in preparation for a year-round path he wants to create out to the tall trees (and future camping spot) in the front of the yard. The girls were fascinated by the activity - Girls love guys on tractors, after all.

We had decided that we wanted the girls to take early naps, so I gave them popsicles because popsicles drip on small children which easily leads to a quick shower to clean off, and showers easily segue into naptime. (And I thought my implication analysis skills had disappeared during my first pregnancy...) Early naptime accomplished, we were able to get the girls up and out in time to go to the English Estate Winery next to the giant gravel pit right in Vancouver. They were having an "Art and Wine" weekend, and we've always been a little curious about what they're doing out there. We got a couple of bottles of wine and headed out just as Ellie completely lost it because she had to leave the horsie swing that had become her new favorite thing in the universe. (Picture Jay carrying her off as she screamed, "NOOOO, HOOORRRRRRRRRRRRSIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!!!!! HORRRRSSIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!)

Yummy dinner together. Hot day turned into a cool evening. Jay put the kids to bed while I planted the new bean plants. Then, a few last words in the Sunday crossword before bed, and voila: great day.

Father's Day

Sunday had been set aside for outbuilding floor installation, so we celebrated Father's Day on Saturday at Marshall Community Park (or as Mags calls it, "the park with the wood chips") in Vancouver. (On the last picture, be sure to follow Ellie's gaze over to the double slide...)

I sure am glad he's my kids' dad...(even if he doesn't always do things just like I would). And here's part of how I know he's a good dad - feedback from Mags:

"Mom, I want you to make my oatmeal like Papa does. He makes good oatmeal!"

"Mama, that's just the same as Papa hugs me when he puts me to bed!"

"Mama, I want you to sing me the song that Papa sings..."

Potty Chairs and a Walk in the Park

Today I went to Lewisville Park with the girls, once I decided that we needed to escape the confines of the abode.

Not to get side-tracked, but speaking of abode, it rhymes with --- commode! Yesterday I got Ellie her own little potty seat (which ROCKS), since she has arrived at the age where she is obsessed with all things potty. She had found Mags’ old potty seat in the garage and had taken to pulling it out in the driveway and crying until someone pulled down her pants and allowed her to sit upon it au naturel. Problem with that was that we have been unable to find the little “bowl” – so basically, had she released the golden stream, she would have been peeing on the stones in the driveway – which, although it seems kind of old-world European, is really not the best overall solution – for our family anyway, not to judge anyone else who may really be into peeing outside. So, Ellie has a potty seat. Guess who is (was) DYING to use it? It’s not me or Jay. So, this morning while I was still allowing my first burst of caffeine to launch me into the day, I had one of my “Where is Maggie” moments. I found her in the bathroom draped in toilet paper, “wiping her butt.” Alas, no telltale crap was in the toilet, so I asked where said crap happened to be. She told me that she had left it in Ellie’s potty. And she was telling the truth. Anyway, I made her swear that she would not use the potty seat again – although I will give her a “pass” if Ellie is in the room at the time and Mags is willing to do a demo.

At the park, we played on the “merry-go-round” and the swings, and Mags wanted to go down the giant slide. This is not a slide built upon soft, shredded rubber from discarded tires, constructed of kid-friendly materials or surrounded by protective netting. This swing was undoubtedly put in place when the WPA carved out the rest of the park – when the West was wild, Sasquatch fished in the river and kids had hard heads. There are not “steps” – there are thin, rounded metal “rungs.” It sits upon hard-packed dirt that you could bounce basketballs upon. It is TALL. And my daughter wanted UP. And, up she went - with me behind her trying not to say the words “scared” or “careful” too much or too loudly, and wondering if she happened to misstep what the probability was that we would both plunge to the crusty earth below and break our backs. She said she wanted to go down “lots of times,” but I think I got her to stop at 4 because she had to pee. She also made me follow her down each time (since I had climbed up behind her every time anyway) and it was totally fun. Then, she wanted Ellie to have a turn – “Carry her up, Mama!” Well, no. But, Ellie did enjoy sliding down the 5 feet or however high I could lift her up from the ground at the side of the slide. And, when Ellie went down, Mags waited at the bottom to give her a sister kiss.

Following the playground, we went “bush-whacking” down below a foot bridge to play in a brook and continued on to a clearing at the river’s edge. It was there that Mags lost her little twig/”fishing pole” and I had to keep my terror down as I told her about what happens when things float down the river and how we have to just say good-bye and wish them well because we CANNOT go in after them, under ANY circumstances. When, in my mild panic, we hiked away from the rushing water, I took a different route than on the way out, leaving us farther down the rocky brook-bed than I would have liked. Mags was having a hard time, but was clearly into the adventure of it all. I was carrying Ellie, which made it hard to help Mags much. At one point, she stepped wrong in her big pink rainboots and fell on her knee. She pouted a bit, but once I congratulated her for being an “Explorer” like our spunky Latina cartoon friend, she pushed on. Near the end, I heard her say, “Come, Little Maggie. Walk on the rocks with me. You can do it – I know you can!” (Which sounds a whole lot like the mama duck in Little Quack, and if you are not familiar with that book, you should go to the bookstore soon.)

Maybe the Start of a Sad Country Song?

Dispute at Gas Station Leads to Man's Arrest

In one of the most enjoyable articles I've read lately, Columbian Staff Writer John Branton explains a story which starts with a man's car breaking down. Then, he's "flipped off" by a guy at a gas station. By the end, he has lost both said car and his large pet pit bull - and he's been arrested. (Take that song idea and run with it, Toby Keith... Don't worry about giving me any credit...) Makes me happy to live where these types of events are shared with us in the "Neighbors" section of the paper.

Here's my favorite line: When O’Keefe drove past, O’Keefe “flipped him off,” Fullbright said. He added that, in his view, the disrespectful gesture called for a smackdown.

What a difference a week makes!

Thanks be to the weather gods for offering up days like this on a weekend! It's back to clouds and rain today, but still not nearly as cold as it has been. Hopefully May will bring spring with it.

We took advantage of the sun Saturday morning to go to Lewisville Park just north (2 miles) of Battle Ground (if that gets your attention, Pops...)