Thoughts for Thursday: 5 Things Keeping Me Sane

 1. Walks

I try to go for a walk in the park every weekday morning, before I start work. I found that unless I get myself out of the door right after breakfast (and before I log into my work computer), I just loose track of time and it neve happens. I just stay at my desk all day long, barely moving.

Work has been busy, so some mornings, it is very tempting to "get a head start" on things, because there is a never-ending list of tasks that I must get through (posters, papers, projects to review from other writers, meetings, meeting notes to send out... ). That's what I did on Monday - I had a couple of projects that I wanted to finish up that day, so I figured, I'd start early, get things done while my brain is still fresh, and then go for a walk during lunch break or in the afternoon... Guess what happenned? I never went for that walk. And I didn't manage to finish the projects - I had a hard time focusing, and kept getting interrupted, and my head was just not in the right place (brain not braining, I believe some would say).

So... the moral of the story... I should just get out and go on that pre-work walk! Even if it means starting work at 9 instead of first-thing-in-the-morning (which ended up being 8:45, anyway, because somehow I end up doing dishes, or get distracted by the news, or just wonder around in circles...)

2. Tea. 

My husband stopped drinking coffee last spring, so he stopped making coffee. I don't love coffee enough to make my own. I'll drink it if someone else makes it - and I enjoy it - but I don't miss it. I do love having a warm mug of flavorful tea, especially now that the weather is starting to get cool. I've been alternating black and green loose-leaf tea. And, occasionally, chai tea or some berry flavor that my kids like. I should try some new teas. Recommendations?

3. PBS

Their shows are well-made and don't stress me out. I watched the first episode of Marble Hall Murders, but I'm going to save the rest of it for later... I didn't love that last book as much as the first two, but I have a feeling I'm going to have a blast watching this season. 

NOVA documentaries are great. I should probably try some of their historic documentaries, too. 

4. Free lectures on youtube. 

I've been watching MIT lectures on immunology. I haven't taken an immunology class since 1999. I remember some stuff, especially on innate immunity, because I did some work on monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells when I was in grad school. I also did a bit of cell staining and flow cytometry... But I remember almost nothing on adaptive immunity, T cells, B cells... I'm doing quite a bit of writing on mRNA-based therapies, including cancer immunotherapies, and the field of immunoogy has developed so much in the recent decades. I need to go back to the basics before I can hope to understand the background and methodologies I need for writing papers.

5. Community

I was sitting in my synagogue on Yom Kippur, and I kept thinking - I need more of this. I don't necessary need to actively participate, but I do need this spiritual component to keep me grounded and provide nourishment for the parts of me that usually get ignored. Concerts do the same thing for me - they feed my soul and make me feel like part of something. 

Dear Reader: what's keeping you sane these days?

Weekend Report

Friday

• Celebrated our 21 anniversary (went out for a nice meal, just my husband and I)
• E was having dinner with cross-country friends
• The girls were fending for themselves
• Started watching Stranger Things season 5

Saturday:

• Cleaned the kitchen (including scrubbing the oven! so proud of myself!)
• Piles, piles, and piles of laundry
• Watched random documentaries while folding laundry (there was one on cistic fibrosis - very interesting)
• Watched the whole first season of The Marlow Murder Club
• C's soccer was cancelled because of rain/wind
• Cooked summer squash soup
• Probably did some other chores/errands, but can't remember now
• Watched more Stranger Things with kids

Sunday:

• Took H to Hebrew School
• Did laundry and random tasks around the house
• Went to celebrate Sukkot in the Sukkah at Hebrew School (except the lunch had to be inside instead of in the sukkah because of rain and wind...) - chatted with some friends
• Back home to change and do a few more errands
• Went to see Philly Chamber Orchestra: Mozart 40th Symphony, JC Bach Symphony in G minor, and Schubert. It was wonderful. E was bummed he couldn't come (he was working), H did not want to go, my dad did not want to go, but the rest of us really ejoyed it. C brought a friend. 
• In the middle of the concert, the conductor talked about the program and why he chose these specific pieces, and brought up some parallels in the music and how Mozart was influenced by JC Bach (they hung out!!!) and then Schubert was influenced by Mozart. He specifically mentioned the use of half-steps and chromatic scales by the composers, and I nearly fell out of my chair. I asked C about it later and she rolled her eyes - "He sounds just like David!" (David is her cello teacher and he's been working wiht Claire on chromatic scales and - yes- half-steps.)
• We got home kind of late, and made supper, and talked. 

Dear Reader: how was your weekend? Do you have any exciting concerts or performances coming up that you are looking forward to?

Really loving right now:

The Marble Ball Murders on PBS

Random documentaries

Free MIT lectures on immunology

Thoughts for Thursday

 

***

The girls and I started watching Marble Hall Murders on PBS. I love this show so much. I told C that I want to be Susan Ryeland when I grow up. C said I was already a grown up (and looked disapprovingly at me).

I just hope that I will, at some point, sprout a greater sense of adventure and a better sense of style.

***

I have not been reading any fiction books for some weeks. I'm finishing up "Shocking Paris: Soutine, Chagall, and the outsiders of Montparnasse" by Stanley Meisler. I happenned upon Soutine when I was at Barnes, and wanted to learn more about him. It is good to have historical context for the artists and their work. I rarely enjoy biographies, but this was not exactly a biography - more of an overview of that time, both in terms of the art scene and political landscape.

***

On one hand, there is so much information out there: books, free lectures available on youtube, documentaries... the opportunites to learn are endless. On the other hand... there is so much information that it becomes useless because you have to spend so much time sifting through it all to find something good.

***

I'd love to find something about Alfred Schnittke (he composed some truly haunting music.. and he wrote scores for movies and animation films that were so good, Hollywood directors would be crying in a corner if they knew of him). I don't think I want a traditional biography. Maybe I can find a lecture...

***

If you had 2-3 hours this weekend, what would you want to learn about?

Weekend Report: Big Birthday and Yom Kippur

Time is such a scarcity right now. I constantly have to choose: do I spend time working? Or should I cook? Clean? Read The Three Muskeeteers with my youngest? Go for a walk? Talk to my oldest about his plans for college applications? Take my middle kid shopping? How about read for fun? Or spend time with my husband? Go visit my parents? Take care of the garden? Go to one of the kids' meets? Help them practice music? I feel like I only have enough time to do a tenth of thing things I need and want to do.

I feel pulled into a hundred different directions all at once. Every day. 

I am constantly catching up on things, only to fall behind on something else. I feel stressed, I get angry, I snap at the kids...

Most of the weekend was spent cleaning, cooking, food-shopping... I read a little bit and worked for a couple of hours. The girls and I watched movies in the evening. I reorganized a couple of kitchen cabinets, managed to go on a couple of walks, and watched a documentary on cistic fibrosis and another documentary on black holes. C had an orchestra retreat. H had a dive practice and a babysitting job. E was out of town.

E turned 18. He was away for his actual birthday (school adventure club camping trip) - so we celebrated a day late. I made his favorite carrot cake. My parents came over and we had an early dinner. E was exhausted and could barely stay awake. We'll hopefully do a more "official" party a bit later, with cousins and friends... 

On Monday, I took a day off. I went to the Yom Kippur morning services, and I just sat there and let my brain do what it wanted. Which was - nothing. I felt so much better after . I have a complicated relationship with religion, but I like being part of the community, and I love the traditional melodies (our synagogue likes to "switch things up" and use more contemporary melodies for some of the prayers, which aggravates me... but Yom Kippur is mostly all traditional and therefore familiar). 

How do you organize your time on weekends? If you like to have unsctructured "down" time, how do you end up spending it? 

Meet the Teachers

I missed last year's Back-to-Shool event for C because of a conflict with other activities. She wouldn't let me hear the end of it. Didn't I want to meet her teachers? Didn't I care? Was she less important than he oder siblings?

I made sure to go to C's 7th grade Back-to-School Night this year. I also attended the athletics info session. There were no earth-shattering revelations, but I'm glad I went. It was good to have a refresh on the sports stuff. It was definitely nice to see the teachers. There were a few teachers I knew from the previous years - the big kids had the same French and STEM teachers and loved them, H had the same science teacher, and E had the same orchestra teacher. It was interesting to meet the Math, Social Studies and English teachers, after hearing C talk about them ("Math teacher is so hyper!" "English teacher is weird"). I liked the English teacher (he said they were going to read Poe!!!). C's Orchestra, French, and STEM teachers are excellent. Math teacher has math background from college (it's always good when the person teaching the subject actually likes the subject!). 

For math, our district got rid of accelerated levels for elementary and early middle school. In 8th grade, there still is an option of maybe pacing into Algebra I instead of Pre-algebra, but I've been told the requirements are more difficult than before.  The older 2 kids did accelerated math starting in 3rd grade, and were automatically placed in Pre-algebra in 7th and Algebra in 8th. There even used to be an option for more advanced kids to take both algebra and geometry in middle school! Why our school is trying to hold kids back from algebra until high school - I have no idea. C was bored to tears in math last year. She said her 5th grade teacher (who loved math) taught them more and gave them more challenging problems than what she saw in 6th grade. I'm really hoping this year will be better.

Anyway... we shall see.

Overall, I like the school and the teachers. It was nice to see a few friends, too, whose kids go to the same school.

Do you remember your favorite teacher in middle school, around grades 6-8? 

Labor Weekend Report Plus Fall Activities Recap

We had a couple of beautiful days here - the humidity has dropped and the temperature was comfortable. I didn't quite get outside as much as I wanted to, because I had some work things to finish up, my dad's 80th birthday to get ready for, and random household tasks to take care of.

Saturday: E had a cross-country meet that was an hour away. Jim and I decided to attend, because this is E's senior year and only so many races left that we'll be able to cheer him on... Girls decided to spend that time at a mall, shopping for dresses (H got a dress for Homecoming dance). The rest of the day, I worked on work and dad's slide show for his birthday, kids did homework and chores, E worked on his college applications. We watched a couple of episodes of Stranger Things.

Sunday: We went to the pool for a couple of hours, where I thought I would read, but ended up just hanging out in the water with husban and kids. C's friend came over. I worked some more. Husband and E made a delicious dinner. 

Monday: we went over to my parents' place, had cake, watched dad's birthday slide show (kids and I worked on it for weeks, so glad he liked it!). 

I spent weeks (months?) agonizing and trying to figure out what to do for dad's birthday. I wanted it to be special, memorable, with good food, not too stressful, and something that he would enjoy. In the end, we did what he wanted - he wanted to go to his favorite park. We had a beautiful walk, stopped by a mini-zoo, talked. It was so, so nice. And then we went to a steakhouse that my parents already scouted out a week earlier and that my dad really liked. It was perfect. He knew exactly what he wanted, and it was great. (One time, when we took my parents to a restaurant for some kebabs, my dad complained about his meat in a very heavy Russian accent: this cow is very old!)

Note to self - for people's birthday celebrations, don't try to surprise them with something new - do what they want! It works out much better (at least with my parents).

Now we are almost back to our fall activities. Kids started school last week. We already had a back-to-school night for C (it was great to meet her teachers!). 

On top of school, E's cross-country and orchestra are in full swing. He also has a job at a running store.

H stopped piano lessons. E and C still take violin and cello lesson, respectively.

C auditioned and got into the junior county orchestra (aka, Young Musician Orchestra, or YMO). E is in the more advanced orchestra (DCYO) for older kids - he auditioned well last spring and now he is just a couple of chairs away from the concert master - he is pretty happy about that!

H was supposed to start dive training yesterday, but her coach cancelled the practice. She started her baby-sitting job (watching 2 kids for a family in the neighborhood once a week).

C is planning to join the middle school cross-country team (and we bought her new shoes at the store where E works, with a nice family discount! and it was fun to see E working and recommending her different running shoes)

Dear Reader - how is your fall going? Are you trying anythign new?

Paris Notes

Things we did in Paris, in no particular order. 

• Museum of music. See the octobass below. They also had a piano that Chopin played, Stradivarius violins, Guarneri cello, and a multitude of harpsichords. There was an audio guide provided at the entrance that could be used to listen to all the instruments.

• Sainte-Chapelle (so much stained glass!)
• Science museum (Neuroscience exhibit was great) 
• Opera house. Chagall ceiling was out of this world. Planning to come back there for a concert! Also, there was a library - how cool is that? 
• Notre Dame (the gargoyles all had different faces!)
• Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis (there were giant clam shells used for holy water, donated by Victor Hugo; plus, a hundreds-year-old graffiti "republic or death")
• Louvre 
• Musee de l'Armee (Napoleon's Tomb was... overwhelming. Also, Napoleon's horse was there. Maps of Borodin battle - I was on-site as a kid. Also, rabbits.)
• Jardin du Luxembourg (kids sailed toy sailboats in the fountain)
• Stravinsky Fountain (wild)
• The Defenders of Time clock (Le Defenseour du Temps)
• Musee D'Orsay 
  
• Eiffel Tower
• Pantheon 
• Montmartre (and Montmartre Cemetary)
• Marais neighborhood (we did a tour)

Food that we had in Paris and I want to try and make at home: galettes. I just need to find buckwheat flour.

I still need to sort through all the photos and videos on my camera...

How do you organize your travel photos?

Back to School

 All 3 kids started school today, September 1! 

I wish they would start on September 1st every year - new months, new beginning... just seems like a good way to start a school year instead of a random day in August or September that changes every year.

I have complicated feelings.

This is our son's last year in high school. Also, he is turning 18 in a few weeks.

I am so excited for him. I am so preparing-to-be heartbroken (you know that feeling, when you are happy but you know it will end and you will feel very, very sad? I wish there was a better word in English than bitter-sweet to describe the feeling of expecting to feel very sad). For a long time, I've had this countdown in my head to when the kids would graduate from high school and start their own life. 

It reminds me of the countdown I had after I gave birth to our first child. I had 12 weeks of "leave of absence" - maternity leave. And I kept counting down to when I would need to leave my baby... 11 weeks.. 9 weeks... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... game over. I thought it would be THE END. Of course, it wasn't. It was a big adjustement (for me... baby E was perfectly content to stay home with grandparents), but it actually worked out really well. I don't know if I had postpartum depression, but there was definitely something off. I felt so disconnected from everyone, it was like nothing existed except for my baby. Going back to work, it was so good to remember that I was a scientist, a human, a friend... all those things that I completely ignored while being absorbed in feeding/changing/gazing at my baby during his first few weeks. Not sleeping was terrible, but that's a subject for another post altogether.

So anyway, being away from my infant son wasn't the end of anything.

I am beginning to think that kids' graduation from high school will not be THE END, either. A change, for sure, but not the end of parenting. I look around at families with post-highschool kids... some work and live at home, some go to college but come home during breaks. Some come back home after college while they are figuring out what they are doing next or to save money while pursuing advanced degrees - C's cello teacher's daughter lived at home during her first few months of medical school (and then decided to live on campus because the commute was more painful than the cost of living on her own). My cousin, who has 3 kids, all in college or grad school, says parenting has entered another stage: it's more supportive listening and less giving advice. 

As much as I want to hold on to the kids, I also want them to thrive and be free to pursue their hopes and dreams. I do hope E goes to college of his choice next year. I do hope he and his sisters can explore, and try new things, and fail, and succeed, and have the grit and the fortitude to do the things they love. Meaning - this very well could be the last year all 3 kids are living at home full-time. 

This means, I need to prioritize family game nights. And family movies. And spend 1:1 time with E.

E's Senior year, it snuck up on me...

Dear Reader: are you counting down to anything? 

Versailles

When I was planning the trip to France, my two older kids said they absolutely wanted to see the Palace of Versailles. I figured we'd spend the whole day there and made absolutely sure we got the tickets - it was the first reservation I made. 

We arrived just before 9 am, on a warm, sunny morning, after a longish trip on metro + train and a brief walk. And the palace presented itself in its full grandeur, the gold shining in the morning sun. It was blinding, really - you couldn't look at the palace without squinting. 

[Our current president must be green with envy.]

We took a few photos, but those wouldn't do it justice. 

This is "dress to impress" at a whole other level. As in, pick your jaw up from the ground, and feel humbled and tremendously lucky to be in the presence of ... I don't know, I guess the legacy of Luis the XIV?

Anyway. It was all amazing. I loved the gardens even more than the palace. I wish I had more time to wonder around and explore. I am putting it on my "I will be back" list (note to self - go to Versailles when the foutains are on!). 

Guess what my daughters liked the best, among all the wonders and splendor, all that gold, the elaborate furniture, furniture, the mirrors, the fountains, the play-village of Marie Antoinette? It was small pig near the Queen's Hamlet. They had a few farm animals there in an enclosure (chickens, a donkey, sheep...) - but the pig was a winner. It was adorable. When the girls started petting it, it rolled its eye and pretend-fainted at their feet, oinking in rupture as they were scratching its back. 

One of my favorite things at Versaille was the portrait of Elisabeth-Chralotte de Baviere (because she looks like she knows how to enjoys life). I'm going to have to read up about her.

Here's an empty hallway that keeps going and going - but imagine it filled with people strolling about, gossiping, flirting.

Doesn't it feel like the place is full of ghosts? And there's got to be hidden passages behind some of these statues... Might be really neat to wonder through the empty rooms of the palace at night... 

Paris. Just A Few Thoughts.

Everything was bigger than I expected. Everything. 

The metro. The Louvre. The Palace of Versailles. The Arc de Triomphe. The Opera House. The Eiffel Tower. Notre-Dame de Paris. Sainte-Chapelle. Champ-Elyssees.

We saw so much. I am still processing the impressions... but if I had to use a single word to describe impression of Paris, it woudl be "Effortlessly Grandiose". Wait, that was 2 words. Well, that's Paris for you - it doesn't fit into meager single-word descriptions.

The metro would be "Terrifically Efficient" (for those who manage to figure out how to navigate it). There are endless tunnels going every-which-way beneath the city - it's a 3D maze-with-a-purpose.

The Eiffel Tower would be "Weightless Art-in-Motion". It is gorgeous. (And much bigger than I expected). We walked up the stairs to the second level. It didn't feel as hard as I thought it would - the stairs were quite spacious (unlike the stairs for Arc de Triomphe).

We only saw a small portion of the Louvre (The Louvre was so, so much bigger than I expected) - we decided to spend time visiting just a few works of art and not be overly ambitious. Mona Lisa was amazing (and while there were quite a few people trying to take photos in front of the painting, the room wasn't as crowded as I feared). I've been told to expect to be underwhelmed, but the portrait was absolutely breathtaking. Some works of art just have this magnetic pull, and this one - I couldn't take my eyes off it. Enigmatic, and ironic, and so much feeling trapped on the canvas. 

And speaking of raw extreme emotion - there was Liberty Leading the People. I've seen reproductions many times, but standing in front of the original - I couldn't walk away. I kept studying the details. So many layers, so much horror, and violence, and hope. Monsenior Delacroix could have reached out and hit me on the head, and I would not have been more affected. If I had to pick one favorite thing that I saw in Paris - this would be it.

And then there was Musee d'Orsay. Once again, I only saw a small part - I didn't want to rush through it, I wanted to give things proper attention. At the end of the visit, when my brain was fully saturated with the art and couldn't take another painting, I was just causually walking through the first floor, glancing at various sculptures. And I saw this (below) - and I was in love.

I am already making a list of things I want to see when I go back to Paris.

Is there a place that you want to go back to? Would you try to visit your old favorites there or see something different?

Luxembourg Impressions

We were in Luxembourg for just a few days, staying in an apartment walking distance from the train station. We had a balcony where we would hang out sometimes to watch people on the street below and to chat. We tried eating there a couple of times (there was a nice large table), but the yellow jackets would find us immidiately and attempt to take over the food. 

The location was great - very convenient for access to (free) transportation within the country, with lots of grocery shops and bakeries nearby. We explored the city and took a couple of day trips to the nearby castles (Vianden and Beaufort). 

The city itself is wonderfl - fun to explore, lot of historic sites, very beautiful views.We mostly explored on foot, but also took trams when we were tired.

Some of the things we did in Luxembourg:

• Shoah memorial
• The casemates du Bock
• Cathedral Notre-Dame of Luxembourg
• The Chocolate House (the cocolate was delicious! we also had some traditional Luxembourgh food there) (the cakes were really cool)

• Wondering through old streets and gawking at the ancient walls

Vianden and Beaufort castles took about an hour to get to by train and bus.

Vianden Castle was a break-taking experience: we got off the bus and - oof, there was the castle, a giant thing plopped on the hill, both beautiful and forbidding. The kids loved Vianden Castle and all the activities there. We watched sword fighitng demo and falconry (one of the eagles flew off and refused to come back, sitting and sulking on one of the roof tops). There were artisans and merchants making and selling different things. Once you were in, you kind of forgot about the size of it, just wondering thorugh the restored halls and rooms. We also did a one-way chairlift (amazing views) and had treats at the cafe on top of the hill - very touristy but the views were breathtaking; interestingly, there were a lot of people speaking Russian at that cafe! We also some exploring of the town and surrounding areas on foot.

We went for a hike near Beaufort Castle - I wish we had more time to explore the trail and hang out at the stream, but we had to hurry to make our reserved time for the tour of the Renaissance portion of the castle. The castle was a place of residence from the medieval times until 2012, when the last owner had passed away. It was cool and a little sad... there was a table in front of a window with binoculars, where she would sit and count the visitors to the medieval portion of the castle. The medieval ruins included a torture chamber, complete with the instruments and descriptions that gave me the shivers.

A big highlight of visiting Luxembourg was finding blackberries in the parks. Our kids love picking berries - and those were probably the best blackberries we've had in a long time (possibly ever). I can't get over the fact that they just grow and nothing seems to eat them... I think a few other people went berry-picking, because most berries close to the walking paths were gone, but if you got just a little bit deeper - there were so, so many. I don't know what the birds of Luxembourg do, but clearly, they find blackberry-eating benath them. I don't suppose there's much deer and we haven't seen a single squirrel. We used one of our water bottles for storage and transport, and ate the berries the next morning with breakfast.

What's your favorite wild berry to pick?

August. Whining.

I meant to write more frequently this summer. There were so many times I thought "I must write a post about this!" or "Oh, here's something important that I want to remember and therefore need to write it down!" or "I want to capture this moment/mood/feelings!" And every time, I would say to myself - just a little bit later, after I finish x, y, and z. But I never did, because after "z" was done, I would need to get started again with "a".

****************************************************

We came back from our trip to Europe just a few days ago. 

I miss good bread. I miss dairy (how is it that milk tastes so different in different places?). I miss the cheese variety so badly I could cry. I miss going to the bakery in the morning and getting pastries for breakfast.

I miss free public transportation in Luxembourg.

I miss efficient (if not particularly tourist-friendly) metro in Paris.

I miss people actually following common-sense rules (like standing on the right side of the escalator and letting those in a hurry pass on the left! - Why can't we have this in the US?).

There is not enough walking.

There is too much sugar in everything.

I don't think I want to live in Europe permanently. But there are so many nice things that would be amazing if they could be adopted here. High-speed trains. Fresh bread every day. Produce that tastes good (like farmers-market good) even if it doesn't look as perfect as the plastic stuff (peaches, looking at you) in tour supermarkets...

I know, I know -  I'm being ridiculous. Fresh fruit and vegetables vary in quality depending on where in Europe you are. 

It is possible to find good produce, dairy, and bread in the US - you just have to know where to look (and be willing to pay extra).

We have good bread at the local farmers market for $$$ - there's typically a long line, too, begging the question why, if there is a demand, there are no local bakeries selling this stuff. There's often freshly baked bread at Costco from their own (in-warehouse) bakery (not much variety, which is normal for Costco, but I love their cranberry/nut loaf).

Dear Reader: what's your favorite yogurt, sour cream, bread? Where do you typically get your produce and are you happy with the quality?

Week Away (Ocean City, NJ)

 We are back from a week at the ocean. 

A few highlights:

• I worked from the library for 2.5 days, and then had time off. For the first time in years, work was not too busy or too stressful, so I could actually enjoy time off. 
• I brought my noise-cancelling headphones to the library - there were occasionally noisy people (not obnoxiously noisy, just mildly noisy) and I work much better when it is QUIET.
• We saw a pod of dolphins, super close to the shore!!! That was amazing. I don't think I've ever seen dolphins that close...
• We went on walks amost every day.
• Kids went to a water park - they are all old enough to no longer require adult supervision. Which meant adults could relax and read books.
• I read quite a bit.
• The kids made frequent trips to the store (easy walking/biking distance) to pick up random things needed for dinner.
• I made golubci (stuffed cabbage) and they were delicious. (I actually made them ahead of time at home, and brought them with me).
• Being in the water was refreshing. It was cold, but in a good way.
• I mostly avoided waves. I still swalled some salt water.
• Why is the water in the Atlantic ocean so much saltier than the Baltic sea?
• Nephew and husband both managed to find whelk. I think there were a total of 3 large ones, over the course of the week. I've never seen one before - look it up! I guess they are edible, but we just let them go.
• Kids found some hermit crabs

It was a good week.

Do you prefer ocean, sea, lake, river, pond, or swimming pool when it's hot outside? (Let's pretend money/distance/time is not a limiting factor)

Seven/Eleven/Twelve

Another school year is over: 7, 11, and 12 are the grades our kids will start in the fall. It was a good year, both in terms of kids balancing activities, school, and hobbies and in terms of academic achievements. They learned, they became more responsible, they became more mature. Our youngest adjusted to the middle school (although, after initial excitement, she really missed her elementary school and not having to run around from class to class). Our older daughter worked hard in her classes and started competing for the dive team and the envirothon team. Our oldest was juggling running, work, orchestra, and schoolwork (including his hardest class to date, AP Physics). 

And yes, we now have a high school senior. I am semi-excited and semi-apprehensive. He is interested in airspace engineering. He has a pretty good idea about where he wants to apply and he is planning to work on the essays + applications this summer. I am trying to gauge how much support he is going to need (I asked him and he said he would let me know). E is also going to have a heavy classwork load next year. On one hand, I am so excited about E exploring what comes next and dreaming big. On the other hand, I am a little anxious about all the stress and all the complexities of college applications and senior year. 

I didn't realize that senior portraits are taken the summer before 12th grade. I actually thought that the email from the photo place was a phishing email and I texted a couple of acquiaintances about it - and it turned out that yes, this wasa real thing, and I better register...

When you were in high school, did you have any idea about what you wanted to do? 

Movies, Museums, Musings

The girls and I went to see "Project Hail Mary" last Saturday. I loved it. It was fun, and funny, and sad, and suspensful, and had a sense of adventure, and held a promise of discovery. And science (as well as scientists) was portrayed in a positive light, as it should be - a way to understand the world around us. I also loved the build-your-own-tech-with-ductape-and-plywood. When you are on the cutting edge of science or tight on money (as many labs are), or both, the equipment you need may not exist, or may be too expensive... so you improvise and make do. Science is great for people who love to tinker.

This is the last week of school for all 3 kids. They've been watching movies. They are sick of watching movies and feel this whole week, for the most part, was pointless. There were a few class parties, here and there, and a couple of tests and assignments for the highschoolers. But mostly, they were just bored. (The older 2 should not have been bored, they should have been using the time to study for Envirothon/SAT/etc, but they didn't want to becuase... last week of school and they are sick and tired of studying).

My mom and I went to 2 museums last Sunday. It was nice to catch up and chat, and the art was beautiful. I visited all my favorite Van Gogh paintings. I need to learn more about Haim Soutine. I saw a few "paintings within a painting" that I never noticed before.

It's hot and humid. I still went on my morning walks and it wasn't too bad (but not as refreshing as it was a couple of weeks ago).

Do you have a favorite museum? A favorite painting?

June Worries and Antidotes

 I am really dreading summer break this year. I tried to put together reasons for anxiety and potential ways of making things work better.

1. Transitions to summer

Every year, the first week after school ends is rough. Because kids are done with school and are home while my husband and I are still working, and... I am just afraid that it will be very stressful, with no allowance for personal time. 

Solution: none. I will have a hard time. This is mostly a "me" problem, and has to do with transition from being home alone at least 3 days of the week during the school year (my husband works from home twice a week) to never being home alone during the summer. This is a change from having my alone time guaranteed 3 times a week vs... none

• Think about an alternative way to have alone time..

2. Lack of consistent summer routine

Every week is going to be different. Some weeks, we will be travelling. Some weeks, C has camp. E's schedule is different every week. H has Envirothon until the end of July.

Solution: 

• Have a talk with kids about what they want to do when they are home (my guess: watch videos, eat junk food, and lie around in their pajamas) vs what I would like them to do (make lunches, wash dishes, go on walks, play volleyball/basketball/ping pong/badminton, read). Maybe come to a happy medium.
• Set expectations for when kids are home (NO sitting around the house in pajamas all day long watching youtube videos!!!!)
• Have a discussion with the kids about the expectations ahead of time 
• Have a plan for daily chores for the kids
• Make sure there are books and audio books that kids like 
• School work: all 3 will have some school work to complete
• Sometimes, just putting on my noise-cancelling headphones and ignoring everyone to get my work done (or to have some alone time) is OK.
• Take breaks to play/hang out with kids 

3. H has no camps and no job

Her babysitting gig ended this week. H at home with nothing to do = a ticking bomb. 

Solution: 

• Envirothon will be keeping her busy June and July. 
• There will be summer work for school. 
• She will have daily dive practices during June and July
• She can start preparing for SAT. 
• I will need to set very clear expectations for her (and figure out consequences): helping out around the house, getting outside daily, 

4. Driving kids to/from camps and/or other activities

C has 2 weeks of camp in July. Drop off/pick up times are 9 am and 3 pm. Also, weekly cello lessons.

H has dive team and Envirothon until the end of July. In July, Envirothon team will probably be meeting every day to prepare for Nationals, which means someone will have to drive her to school and then pick her up a couple of hours later, during work hours. H also has weekly piano practice (same as during the year, so no changes there)

E has a job, daily cross country practices, weekly violin lessons,  and plans to have string quartet practices during the summer. 

Solutions: 

• One of the camps for C is in Philly, so she'll be commuting with my husband. 
• E drives - so he can help out with taking the girls to their activities and driving himself around.
• Cello, piano, and dive are in the evening, after work, so easier for my husband and me to split the driving.

How do you deal with transitions and changes in routine from school year to summer?

Last Weekend of May Report

 

Friday evening:

• Made Borsch
• Went to take prom pictures at a nearby college/garden
• It was a little crazy. Too many people. But E was having a good time. 
• I wasn't initially planning on going there - I just asked E to send me whatever photos he and his friends took. But then an acquaintance asked if I wanted to join her for the photo-taking, and it sounded like this was going to be a pretty big deal that should not be skipped.
• It was a big deal. So, so many parents and fancy-dressed kids.
• But it also wasn't. Because I am really not into taking photos. And I wanted to escape after about 15 minutes but couldn't.
• E was at first apprehensive when I showed up, but then seemed to appreciate it (because almost all the other kids had their parents there... and I'd like to think I was less mortifying than some other parents snapping photos non-stop... but probably not). And he definitely warmed up to posing for pictures with his friends and his date.

Saturday:

• Walk in the park with my husband
• Food-shopping
• Cleaning + laundry + random things around the house
• Cooking
• Went to visit kittens that C's friend is fostering
• Friends came over for dinner: they brought the main dishes and we made the sides (including Borsch); we ended the evening sitting around the fire and chatting while kids were roasting marshmallows.

Sunday:

• Yard work
• Read with C (Pride and Prejudice - we are making good progress; C said that the book was exciting because it was focused on interactions between people and did not have elaborate descriptions of scenary)
• Took C to classical music concert (her middle school orchestra teacher was performing)
• Took C and H out to dinner, while husband and E went to track banquet. 

Happy June!!! 

Nearing the Finish Line

May is almost over. School is almost over.

My older kids are a bit stressed out over all the end-of-school stuff. My youngest (6th grade) is bored in school, because they do even less than usual. 

E and H have a few upcoming tests and projects. E started a 2-month online course to satisfy next year's history requirement - and it is a lot more work than he anticipated. H's Envirothon team won the state competition and she is now studying for nationals. They want to be done - they want to rest and relax and sleep in. Ha. Welcome to the real world, babies.

E is also stressed about the upcoming graduation ceremony, where his strings group is going to be playing a bunch of music, including Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance". The senior class has an amazing group of musicians (very strong violins, violas, and cello) - and they are losing all of them (and they can't perform during their own graduation ceremony). The current group of kids are not as strong - and the worse part is, they don't practice. E is supposed to lead the group and he is getting frustrated about having to be encouraging while making sure that they are prepared (he can't go east-style "You are terrible!!! Work hard or you will FAIL!!!" - all the kids are American and only a couple have immigrant parents; he must do west-style "nice job, everyone, that sounded pretty good, but could use some improvement."). 

He is going to really miss his graduating musician friends.

School is officially over on June 12. 

In other news: I had an encounter with a box turtle on my morning hike! It was crossing the forest path. You got this, turtle!

Also, I saw a new-to-me merganser duck. The photo did not come out well, but the duck was really cool.

What are you looking forward to this summer? What were the memorable things that happened in May?

Memorial Day Weekend

Doesn't it seem like "Memorial Day Weekend" is somewhat of an oxymoron? I mean, it's either a "day" or a "weekend", but a weekend is not a day... and a day is not a weekend...

Or maybe this is just my morning brain fog making objects appear weirder than they actually are.

Anyway... we had a nice long weekend.

Friday:

• C went to a birthday party
• H had a few friends over after school
• The rest of us relaxed (except E - he had homework)

Saturday:

• Lots of cleaning (about time! with crazy work things, stuff has been really piling up all over the place)
• Some cooking
• Friends came over for dinner

Sunday

• Cirque du Soleil
• Resting/reading
• Watched Gilmore Girls with H and C

Monday:

• Cooking
• E's friends came over first thing in the morning (8am!!!) - they were planning their future trip across the country
• Shopping with the girls (swim suits)
• C's cello lesson
• Parents came over 
• Made ice cream using the ice cream machine we got mom for her birthday (she doesn't want it! which means I have to figure out something else for her)
• Mom usually loves all types of kitchen gadgets
• But not the ice cream maker, unfortunately

Webs

There is one thing that bothers me when I go on forest walks in the morning.

Spiderwebs.

It's not as bad as walking into a giant web face-first - not an uncommon occurrence from my chilhood. Usually, these are just baby-webs that the spiders got started on but never got a chance to complete. 

Still, they cling to my face and arms, and I don't love that feeling.

There is enough human traffic on the trails to prevent anything big from being spun, but first thing in the morning, I may be the first one through, and oh boy, those spiders must have had a busy few hours since the sunrise.

So, if you happen to see a person waving arms randomly while walking along a trail - that's probably me, doing preventative arm movements to avoid getting the spiderwebs on my face. Or if you see a person waving a tree branch in front of them - yep, also me.

As little as I appreciate spiderwebs on my face, I have to say - I truly, really appreciate spiders. Anything that eats mosquitos is my friend.