The doctor will see you now...



This past week has been our 'off' week (no schoolwork), or what I call "Appointment Week" so that it doesn't give the impression that we aren't doing anything.

Here are some doctor appointment ideas that have worked well for us:

I purposely schedule appointments (if possible) for the last week of the month.  This works well for me for several reasons.  I have a crappy memory will have difficulty remembering appointments if they are scattered all over the month.  Knowing that they will all be the last week of the month helps me to feel a little more at ease during the rest of the month because I won't have that nagging feeling that I am supposed to be somewhere.   It helps while on the phone or at the doctor's office to know exactly which week to flip to when scheduling.  This also minimizes disruptions on school days.  Any time we have to drop what we are doing to run somewhere, by the time we get back the day is lost.  It is very difficult to get the wheels grinding again.

I schedule appointments first thing in the morning.  The kids are little angels (HA!) early in the day.  I can expect (for the most part) to have their cooperation and for them to be fairly mild-mannered at this time.  It also means that you won't have to wait in a waiting room for very long.  Doctors are notorious for getting progressively more and more behind as the day drags on.  If you have an appointment in the early - mid afternoon range, you are only asking for trouble.  I've walked out on two different occasions when my wait time had stretched beyond an hour.  It's obvious that as I am sitting there, struggling to keep four kids under control, that the appointment won't go well either.  If your kids are antsy about seeing a Dr. (mine aren't) then they don't have to spend all day thinking about it.  The Dr. will also be at their most pleasant - they haven't put in a long day yet, and they will be more likely to stay and chat for a few moments.  Which is why they get behind in the first place.  Great for you, but sucks for the rest of the people later in the day.  So get out your appointment calendars, get those coveted first-thing-in-the-morning time slots and you are good to go!

Schedule with purpose.  Think about what might be happening during the appointment.  If I know a shot is going to take place, I shoot for a Friday appointment, or a day when I KNOW that there is nothing going on the following day.  My kids tolerate shots pretty well, but the day after is always a crap shoot.  Sometimes they are fine, other days they are cranky, tired and occasionally feverish.  This typically peaks at 24 hours after the shot, so that is why I keep the next day free from errands or other appointments.  You are just setting yourself up for a difficult day, otherwise.  The older they get, the less this matters.  I am actually doing a happy dance because Colin just finished his last round of baby shots.  I have been contending with baby shots and their aftermath for four years now.  I am ready to be done!!  (As for the whole immunization argument, I am a daughter of a retired immunologist.  I would be disowned if I didn't immunize his grandkids.)

Group appointments together, geographically.  Since you are lumping all of your appointments together in one week, you will most likely have more than a couple.  We see a variety of people in three different cities.  Jordan sees a children's psychotherapist and a children's therapist/counselor in an adjacent city twenty minutes away.  They both work in the same practice, so I schedule the mid-morning appointments back-to-back, and only on a Tues or a Thurs.  One appointment is a quick 20 min. and the other is an hour.  I leave him for the hour-long one, and drive a half-mile down the street to a park, where the little kids can play, instead of shushing them in the office waiting room for the whole time.  We have a quick lunch at the same park afterwards, and then drive on to karate class, which is four minutes away.  That way, we are only driving back and forth one time.

Enlist your spouse or other family members to help.  This is where you might want to consider scheduling at the very end of the day.  My husband scheduled an appointment for me this week to see the podiatrist that he has been going to this past year.  This doctor's practice is in the same city that my husband works, 45 minutes away.  Instead of dragging all four kids into the examination room with me, my husband stays with them and takes them to a park.  We can pull this off by scheduling the appointment late, so that all he is missing from work is the last hour or so.  This currently backfires for us just a little bit, because it totally disrupts nap time, but in the grand scheme of things, this is the best way.  The same routine is used when I have to go to the dentist.  My ob/gyn is here in our city, and well, you really don't want a pint-sized peanut gallery for that, so grandma steps in to help.

Keep the kids occupied.  We have a bag that is loaded with coloring books, stickers, wikki-stiks, crayons, card games and a couple of books.  It stays in the car so that we have it available for any appointments or restaurant visits.  During those long waits in the examination room we play iSpy (I Spy an otoscope!), do physical challenges (who can hop on one foot for 30 seconds, who can hold their breath the longest, and so forth...) One time I tore the paper off of the exam table, crumpled it into a ball, and we played hot potato.  You could also fold up paper airplanes.  There are all sorts of things you can do with tongue depressors as well.  Just be sure to stash them before the nurse see you.  And that doesn't mean put them back in the jar you got them from! (Jordan).

Communicate with your kids why you/they are seeing the doctor in the first place.  I can't stand it when I see pushover-parents begging or bargaining with their kids in the waiting room about their impending visit.  They disguise the fact that a shot is coming.  They even lie about it.  I have always been up front and no-nonsense about it.  "Yeah, you will be getting a shot today.  No big deal."  I give a quick run-down of how the appointment will go.  "The nurse will measure your height and weight, take your temperature and listen to your heart.  The doctor will listen to your heart and lungs, feel your tummy, tap your knees, look into your eyes and ears (this would be a great opportunity to introduce medical terminology by naming equipment)".  By doing so, you reduce anxiety about the appointment.  By the time Jordan came into my life, he had developed quite an aversion to needles.  So bad in fact that two adults had to hold him down when he needed a shot.  I don't think this was a nature thing - this was pure nurture, and I can tell by phone conversations exactly who it was that continued to fuel this anxiety.   It took a good 2-3 years to diffuse the situation and make the experience a non-event.  But even now, the damage has been done.  I routinely have to send Jordan out of the room whenever one of the other kids is getting a shot because Jordan is in the background yammering away about what is about to happen and so forth.

Choose a small practice over a big practice.  You will be more likely to get appointments when you want them - especially in an emergency.  You get to know everyone.  The receptionist at the pediatrician's office knows that I like to stash the kids in the car first, then come back in and settle the bill and make another appointment.  After they have been cooped up in an examination room for an hour, they completely terrorize the unfortunate people in the waiting room by running all over the place, operating at full volume.  I just take them to the car and they burn off the energy in a safe, confined space.  Plus, the office is so small that you can park ten feet away from the front door.  So I can see them.  I just don't have to hear them.  :)

Bring snacks and drinks.  We plowed through six bananas the other morning while we passed the time in the waiting room at a regional lab facility.  Jordan was there to get a blood draw (a routine event based on the meds he is taking).  We spent about 15 minutes waiting (this was not an appointment we could schedule, but we did show up first thing in the morning) and the kids spent most of the time with food in their mouths - which in turn makes it difficult to be loud and obnoxious.  I saw several older folks smile as Colin said 'tankyou' to Owen after he handed him a banana, and Owen responded with a 'You're welcome!".  One lady even said, "You have such polite and pleasant children!" (snigger)

Don't offer candy as a reward for a good visit. Visit a park for 30 minutes instead.  What kids need is a way to burn off energy and any built-up anxiety -not a sugar high.

Gone are the good times when I could revel in a trashy copy of People while biding my time in the waiting room.  Now I have to sit there, ready to pounce if one of the kids starts running around, jumping from couch cushion to couch cushion.  It is not fun, but I least I have numerous ways to lessen the stress of it all.  What I hate most about doctor visits is when twenty different pairs of eyes are on me when the three year old starts to holler because his sister is hogging their chair/their book/the snack box, whatever...  but it is a good a time as any to model for them and teach them how to be respectful in such a situation/environment.  You just stand up and scream.  (on the inside...)

Dead battery



Why is it, whenever the slightest hint of car trouble crops up, does each child need to 'lose it' in their own special way?  Just curious.

Running off leash

I unhooked the leash from my mouth yesterday and ran with it.

And it felt GOOD!

Today's unleashing will feel even better.  It's about religion.  And the lack thereof.  I won't deny it - I'm a secular thinker.  I embrace many different theories on how we came to be here, but I hold them ever so briefly, and let them fall by the wayside because the only truth to me that makes sense is this:  There is no heaven.  There is no hell.  There is no middle man between me and 'God'.  There is no sin.  There is no prayer or mortal application of forgiveness to pardon my 'sin'.  No Creation, Resurrection or Immaculate Conception.  Good and Evil?  Yes.  Intelligent Design?  No.  I have felt this way for a good number of years now, and my line in the sand is drawn.

So it was with a great deal of interest that I listened to a story on NPR's Morning Edition, this past Monday morning.  A discussion about a new book release is always interesting, and I love, love, love the way Robert Krulwich conducts his interviews - the playful banter back and forth always makes for good listening.  The author, Stephen Greenblatt , is releasing The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.  It is a story about how a lost book (one of only maybe three copies in existence), called On the Nature of Things, by a Roman writer named Lucretius, was rediscovered in 1417, in a German monastery, and brought forth again to the world.  The amazing thing is the subject matter.  The book was written before the fall of Rome, before Darwin (!!), before the time of Jesus, before the Church took a stranglehold on European society and crushed any attempts of free, scientific or spiritual thought.  Click on the link above and listen to the story.  I think it is just beautiful.  Here is an excerpt from On the Nature of Things:

... moving randomly through space, like dust motes in a sunbeam, colliding, hooking together, forming complex structures, breaking apart again, in a ceaseless process of creation and destruction. There is no escape from this process. ... There is no master plan, no divine architect, no intelligent design.

All things, including the species to which you belong, have evolved over vast stretches of time. The evolution is random, though in the case of living organisms, it involves a principle of natural selection. That is, species that are suited to survive and to reproduce successfully, endure, at least for a time; those that are not so well suited, die off quickly. But nothing — from our own species, to the planet on which we live, to the sun that lights our day — lasts forever. Only the atoms are immortal ...

Oh.  My.  Almost two thousand years before Darwin, yet you can read his thoughts right here.  In a time when the world of Roman Gods and Goddesses ruled the day, Lucretius was able to come up with this.  I am in absolute awe.  To be able to think on such a deep and complex level - these ancient works are just incredible - in the sense that they are absolutely relevant today.  Here is another review, on Fresh Air.

I was fortunate enough to get to listen to the Morning Edition interview twice.  Once with Dean, and then later again when I was driving with the kids to a field trip destination.  I wanted Jordan to hear it.  What is troubling is that he found it distressing.  We are in no way trying to stamp out religion in this family.  The kids are and will continue to be encouraged to make their own faith journey and to ultimately declare their beliefs (whatever they may be) as their own. I however, with a great deal of intention, look for opportunities to expose the kids to as many historical or scientific approaches to religion as I can - because I have to counteract a great deal of intense religious exposure whenever the kids enter the state of Oklahoma.  (and that is putting it nicely).  Jordan's mother has been taking Jordan to a Holy Roller type of church in the past couple of years - the type where the kids are strongly encouraged to bring their bibles to church with them every time.  They jazz the kids up with video games, free food and candy, loud music and so forth.  All in the name of Jesus.  Crap.  Give me a break.  The sad thing is that we have to point out to Jordan, time and time again, how the church is using these gimmicks to take advantage of his youth and naivete to just reel him in.  And it is working.  Despite all of our hard work to keep him free and open-minded, he still wavers on the edge of contemplating that Creation could have happened.  Are you serious????  AAAAGGGHHHH!

My children (can't control what happens with Jordan, unfortunately) will never be allowed to be in Oklahoma unattended.  Why?  Because there is so much in-your-face organized religion there you could choke on it.  I am not lying when I say that from the ages of 2 -4, when Rylan was referring to Oklahoma she would use the term 'Church'.  "When are we going to Church?".  It took me forever to figure out what she was really asking.  I have no idea how she got that term in her head - it is a true puzzle, but almost laughably ironic. 

Don't get me wrong - I am not saying that church or the teachings of Jesus Christ are bad.  I believe he was a wise, prophetic man who walked this Earth and did good things while he was here.  I believe he had a lot of important things to say about how to treat each other with respect and kindness.  He meant it - look at the times he was living in - the Roman occupiers were a bunch of assholes!  But that is the point - that what he had to say was relevant to the time period and culture he was living within.  Decades (pray tell centuries?) after his death, when the books of the new testament were coming together, they told his story.  That is a long time for a story to get thoroughly embellished.  And embellish it they did.  Stuff and more stuff was added - the more fantastical the better (and isn't it strange how the Agnostics were suppressed?).  That's how all the great storytellers perfect their craft - make it interesting and powerful for it to have the fullest effect.  Stories have a common thread within every society on Earth - they are the most effective tool to exert a society's preferred cultural norm among the masses.  So all of the Evangelical and Day of Reckoning crap?  Pure hogwash meant to scare the daylights of the believers and to fill the coffers of the church. (Pay us and we'll SAVE you!)  That is the aspect of organized religion that really pisses me off.  God gave you free will - and now he is going to punish you?  God hates gays?  God will smite you if you get an abortion?  You will be punished if you do not hand over all of your worldly goods?  What exactly are the new breed of organized, mega churches trying to achieve here?  Believe this or you will go to hell?  Where is the 'be kind to your brother' message?  Where is the 'be kind to the Earth for it's all we have' message?  Where is the 'you-are-not-better-than-anybody-else-no-matter-their-nationality-skin-color-sexual-orientation-socio-economic-status message'?  You can't play both messages at once- they contradict each other!  Don't profess to be a loving Christian yet only to tell me, that because I haven't confessed my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior that I will not see you in heaven.  What an awful, awful thing to say to someone.  It hurts.  It segregates.  It passes judgement that is not yours to give in the first place. 

Our own church, for the most part, does a good job of keeping the message on target.  But.  In the past, one half of our pastoral team has strayed into a grey area that we (Dean and I) are not comfortable with and that discomfort has prevented us from attending church services in the past two years.  Ironic, I know, when we still go there once-a-week for Financial Peace University.  But it is the small-group interaction and discussion that really appeals to us - and we have found a great deal of comfort in it.  The fact remains that our fears are well-founded because of the dilution and distortion of the message.  It is not only the minister's message that can stray.  It is every adult that the kids come into contact with.  Sunday school is a big gamble.  What are these adults saying to our children?  I don't want my children to grow up thinking that the story of Noah's Ark was REAL.  That Adam and Eve and all of the (gasp) trouble she 'caused' was REAL.  Little ones cannot decipher between an embellished tale of wonder and what is REAL.

This blog is about our family and our homeschooling experience.  There is so much that ties into that decision.  The quandary of religion is a big part of that.  We want control over what our children are exposed to.  When a child is spending time with others, we have very real concerns about what information or experiences those adults are exposing them too.  Is it fundamental?  Objective? 

So back to the car journey this past Monday morning... Jordan is troubled.  He asks "So is that all there is?  We are just a bunch of atoms?  There is no heaven?"  Of course I am not going to sit there and dash all of his hopes of an afterlife.  This is a touchy subject for him - his mother has had to confront her own mortality in the past year, and I know that Jordan is very concerned.  I make it very clear that it all depends on WHAT YOU PERSONALLY BELIEVE.  That is the beauty of our human nature and the free will we have been given.  No one can tell us the absolute truth.  We can gather up as much information as we can, sift through it, and adhere to what speaks to us.  For me, the beauty of atoms coming together, forming a life, and then disassembling when that life is over, and then coming together to form something else... over and over again.  That speaks to me.  No soul is attached.  It is just the coming together and then the parting of atoms - yet in such a fantastical way that anything and everything in our universe is created that way.  And then disassembled.  Not destroyed, just disassembled.  There is a finite amount of materials - yet look at the diversity that surrounds us.  Pure awesomeness.

Fast forward a couple of days, and Jordan is reading a blurb about Martin Luther in his Core Knowledge book.  Long discussion on the way to church (of all places) ensues.  I cannot stress to Jordan enough about the importance that you should question the authority figures in your life that insist on exerting absolute power.  There are life lessons to be learned from history.  Do not let Martin Luther's battle with the Catholic Church and the legacy he left behind be in vain.  He, despite great personal risk, questioned the clergy's authority to take money from the masses in return for the pardoning of sins.  There is no middle man between you and God.  The church cannot control forgiveness - only you can.  The most important sources of forgiveness are the person you hurt or from within your own self.  And forgiving yourself is one of the most difficult lessons to learn in life.  Some will hurt for years, unwilling to let go of failure.  It was a good discussion.  Jordan messes up frequently - yet he has to learn to grow from the experience and move beyond the failure.  And, quite frankly, so do I.

So many great men and women have been such sources of inspiration and beacons of light for us.  I thank Lucretious and Martin Luther for giving me something to think about this week.  My visual source of inspiration this week is the image of Phoebe (from the sitcom Friends), running through Central Park.  Arms and legs going in every direction.  Hair flying.  A big grin on her face.  Unleashed...

Sorry if I throw out an elbow to far.  Sorry if I kick you in the shin.  But I will say what I think.  I will express my fears, humility, anger, frustration, happiness, hopes and dreams in a way that is meaningful to me.  The fact that I stop, think and share my feelings is the truest indication that I don't want my life to be just an endless repetition of days with no legacy of thoughts or ideas.  I hope to inspire others as well...

Here's to Phoebe...



Cleaning House

There is a recurring theme here, as I work through the past week's events...

Last Saturday, Rylan went through promotions and earned her blue belt.

A warm up round of jumping jacks

Star block set

 

Blue belt!  I love the confidence showing here... When she was started last November, she was afraid to look her instructors in the eye.  This makes me very happy to see!

Here is a short video of our Rylan, along with the other Rylan (love it that there is another Rylan  - it is such an unusual name to begin with - and to have a classmate with the same name is just plain hilarious in my book)  doing the Tiger Set #2 with their instructor, Mr. Baptista.  The other Rylan then went on to do Tiger Set #3 on his own.  He was the highest ranked belt in this current promotions, and our Rylan is just one belt below him.  I think Rylan is only just beginning to learn Tiger Set #3 - and there are only nine weeks between promotions - I'm anxious to see if she will learn it in time...

Rylan's grandparents, (my dad and stepmom) attended the promotions - this was their first time seeing Rylan doing karate.  They loved seeing all the little kids in their outfits and they were very impressed with how long they could stand still, at attention.  (quite frankly, so am I!).  It was great to have them there.  Afterwards we went to walk around a sidewalk chalk art show that was going on across the street from the academy.

This square was just one of about 70 that various local artists were creating as part of a fund raiser for a safehouse.  There was some amazing stuff - I wish I had taken more pictures.  :(

On Sunday afternoon, our Girl Scout troop held a fall picnic and beginning of the year ceremony, including Rylan's Daisy Troop Investiture Ceremony.  I am the Daisy Troop Leader, and I can say, without a doubt, I have no idea what I am doing.  I just wing it.  I am trying to invest myself emotionally in this, but it is not working.  I have spent untold hours trying to make sense of the Girl Scout website and the program... but I am just lost as to what the end goal really is.  This is where Boy Scouts really shines for me - they know what they are doing.  I just can't really understand what the GS leadership is thinking here  - and they have had 100 years to figure it out.  I read about tremendous frustration on the GS message boards every day - so much that it is dragging me down and feeding my negative vibe here...  The bottom line is that if this is the way to bring Rylan together with other little girls - then in that respect, it is working.  Our group of girls is wonderful.  They are inquisitive, respectful and cheerful.  I just feel so much like a fish out of water with all of this, I hope I am not doing them an injustice by being so aloof.  Anyway... I digress.  Here is a photo.  Dean was running the camera during the ceremony, while I was bumbling my way through, pinning the Daisy pins on the girls and distributing patches.  I wish I had more pics to share, but they all contain a lot of other girls, and that requires a lot of parent permissions, so I am not messing with it.

We also had the girls do a flag ceremony.  Apparently this was the first time the troop has ever done that.  I had asked the other two leaders (Brownies and Juniors) during a planning session how they did the flag ceremony, and I got blank stares. (no, I am not indicating that my fellow leaders are in anyway negligent - it just had never been done before)  See, that is the thing about the Girl Scouts organization.  There is none!  The whole entity is just this feel-goody nebula of ideas for activities that girls could do, if they felt so inclined.  Here is what bothers me deeply.  See that American flag patch on Rylan's vest up there?  The Girl Scouts organization indicates that the patch is a required emblem.  Well of course, they do - they are a patriotic organization.  Why, in the second line of the Girl Scout Promise it reads : To serve God and my country.  If that is the case, why are there no clear and defined guidelines for proper flag ceremony procedure for the organization?  Sure, there is a loosely detailed run down on the GS website - complete with what to say, but here is the kicker.  It is listed as *optional*.  There is no *optional* when it comes to this.  If you are nationally organized patriotic entity, a flag ceremony should not be optional, it should be required.  Major fail, Girl Scouts.  I'm not some patriotic fanatic - but I have been to enough Boy Scout events to know that they take their flag ceremonies very seriously, and it is eternally shameful that the Girl Scout are all *whatever* about it. 

Long story short, we did one.  We took our awesomely huge flag that hangs on our house, and Dean rigged a pole and stand with stuff he found in the basement.  The extension pole from our paint roller, some PVC pipe and a patio furniture umbrella stand were used.  The beautiful thing is is that it worked.  The older scouts were excited to do the ceremony, and they did a pretty good job for only getting the instructions on how to do it about five minutes before we began.  My biggest fear is that they would forget what they were doing and accidentally drag the flag on the ground.  That would be bad.  But, nope - they did great.  I was also a bit pushy about doing a flag ceremony because our picnic fell on the date of 9-11, and it would be a shame if we skipped it.  As an afterthought - I really need to make it a priority to teach Rylan the Pledge of Allegiance.  There are just some procedural things in life that you never think about when you homeschool.  Saying the pledge is one of them.  Teaching the kids their phone number and address is another.  And fire safety.  And self-protection. (stranger danger).  I need to get on the ball with some of this stuff.

The rest of the week is a bit of a blur.  I spent a good deal of time cleaning (I just 'met' FlyLady - oh boy....) and working on making organizational tables for writing out short-term lesson plans.  I have always wanted to make a homeschool binder that would house everything.  Our schedule, lesson plans, book lists, long-range checklists...  So I started with the basics and will go from there.  I also had an incentive - we were holding a meeting with our homeschooling group (the topic was organization), and I, the organizer for this particular meeting, didn't want to look like an unprepared fool.  I've got all these great ideas in my head, it is just hard getting them down on paper.  I know that organization is THE number one topic of concern when it comes to homeschooling, and a lot of parents would be looking for ideas/help/answers and so forth. 

Wednesday we picked up Jordan from the airport - he was coming home from a six week stay with his mom.  The visit seemed to go okay for the most part.  Jordan sounded massively bored, whenever we talked with him on the phone.  His grandma (Dean's mom) kept him very busy with field trips and stuff to do on the days that she had him, while Jordan's mom was at work.  That was a huge help!  Jordan got to go on a behind-the-scenes tour of Braum's (lucky dog), several museums, do a volunteer day at the food bank, and play with his cousins.  He also came home with a ton of new toys - courtesy of some doting grandparents and money he earned cleaning the house for his mom.  It was a little bit of a rude awakening for him to come home with this 'stuffitis' mentality (gotta buy more stuff) and we are in the midst of our financial crisis (see other blog) and we have the mentality of BUY NOTHING.  I think he is over it, at this point.  The re-entry period is basically over.  He went through his typical gaming withdrawal, and has rediscovered the joy of reading.  The novel that he took with him for the six weeks was barely touched while he was there, but when he got home he started reading again and he is done with it.  Glad to have him home.  We are back on the full-blown school schedule with him this week, and he is actually happy to be back at it.  That says something about the level of boredom he experienced.  His mom apparently had a CT scan while he was staying there, and it is supposedly clean - no signs of cancer.  The odd thing is, there was no email message about this to us, so we are not sure what to make of it.  It is good news for sure - if it were me, I would have told the world!

Thursday night was the meeting.  I brought absolutely everything that I could think of that fit along the lines of organization.  I talked about grocery shopping, meal planning, house cleaning, scheduling, tracking school hours, short-term and long-term planning, goal setting and so on.  That got me thinking that maybe I would do a series of posts about each topic.  Then you won't have to hear me complain about anything else.  :)  The meeting went well, was fairly attended and I learned a lot from a couple of other moms who were there.  I am sure I came across as a psycho-organizational-fanatic, but oh well.  I hope not, but I think after passing around page after page of different sorts of lists and tables, the reputation couldn't be helped.  I tried to convey the fact that I have no short-term memory - no front OR back burners working here!!  If it is not written down somewhere, I will forget it.  If I don't plan my day, I will fritter it away without fail.  I use these lists for basic survival, people!

There was some emotion at the meeting - it has been a rough month or so for our group.  We have exploded in size (we are now 140+ families strong.  When we joined five years ago, there were only 50 or so active families), and there are so many differing opinions about which direction the group should go.  The email traffic went off the charts during the month of August, and it got to the point where I could no longer face my inbox, I was so overwhelmed.  I organize one of the three Park Days (three different days, three different cities) for our group, and made a change last month to the time frame to include a portion of the morning hours as well, to accommodate moms (like me) that have afternoon nappers.  Since no one hardly attends the park day, I felt I was well within my rights to do so.  I had sent out an email two months ago soliciting comments/suggestions, and I heard from no one.  140 families.  NO ONE!!!!  Excuse me?  So I said, f*#k it - if no one cares, I'll customize it to suit the few moms that do go.  We've had rain the past two Wednesdays, so I have no idea if this new time will actually bring more people to Park Day or not.  So, now I've heard that one mom in particular, who attended one of the other park days was talking smack behind my back about the fact that I had no right to change it. (I have never seen her there)  Talk about high school mentality.  So you wanna go there?? 

 Uh-oh....my inner high school bitch coming through...

* You've been a member how long?? Uh-huh... that's what I thought.

* You can get off your fat a$$ and organize your own thing if you don't like it.

* You can read your f*#king email and respond when I was ask for opinions instead of complaining after the fact.

* You can take your rude comments and go join the Christian group instead...

ooooo... now that felt good.  A little too good.   Just like cleaning house - I had to sweep that crap right out of my brain.  So sorry it had to fall in your lap, though.  Let's shine this all up with something pleasant to look at.

That's better

When life gives you tomatoes...

You have to draw the line somewhere.  You can only stuff so many cherry tomatoes in your mouth in a day.  And then there are the big ones.  Only so many sandwiches, or wedges drizzled in balsamic vinaigrette or sprinkled with sugar... Why do they seem to ripen ALL at once?  What do you do? 

I developed a tomato sauce routine years ago, when I was averaging 30 plants and had just a garden to take care of - not kids.  Now I am down to a more reasonable 18 (I started with 20).  Two are cherries and the rest are an odd collection of mismatched pairs of either store-bought plants or starts my dad gave me.  I have a new favorite though - German Strawberry.  Oh.  My.  That one is good! 

I begin by doing a massive picking.  I drag out the colanders and pick every red tomato I can find.  This includes the cherries because they have an awesome flavor.  I even pick the ones that have evidence of a bug or two, splits or end rot.  You can always trim that stuff away and use the good side.  A good-sized batch is enough to fill an entire cookie sheet - mounded up in a pile.  That is where I got the name for my routine - the cookie sheet method.

You begin by assembling your stuff....

* A cookie sheet full of a mound of tomatoes. Why a cookie sheet?  Because one cookie sheet (like the one above) will be exactly enough to fill your crock pot - an inch or two from the rim.

* Crock pot, set on high for the first hour.

* slotted spoon for retrieving tomatoes from the boiling water

* A large stock pot filled halfway with water, set to boil

* another cookie sheet

* a cutting board and empty bowl for the stuff you cut away, and for the skins

* a colander in the sink

* an empty plastic bowl in the other sink

* most importantly - a fan!  It's going to get hot standing by the pot of boiling water...

You set up in assembly-line style.  I begin by trimming the tops and cutting away the yucky stuff (if there was any) and then dropping it into the colander in the sink next to me.  Then Rylan (having a helper is great!!) will wash the tomato and put it into the bowl in the next sink.  Rylan is currently suffering from what I call the Cinderella Complex.  She insists on wearing a princess dress while performing menial household tasks.

Take the bowl of washed tomatoes and gently tip them into the boiling water.  The water should be at a full, rolling boil.  Let them stay in the water while you trim up another batch of tomatoes, and rinse them.  That should be ample time for the skin to split on the tomatoes in the boiling water.  The trick is to keep the cycle going continuously.  When you're done washing the next batch, remove the tomatoes from the boiling water and set them on the spare cookie sheet.  Leave them there to cool as you continue the trimming, washing and boiling routine until all of the tomatoes are done. 

At this point. all of the tomatoes should be on the cooling cookie sheet.  If you can, set the tomatoes from back to front as you go, so that you won't inadvertently pick up a hot one and burn yourself.  Pick up a tomato, and squeeze it gently as you hold it over the crock pot.  It should just slip out of its skin.  You might have to give it a little pinch where it attaches on the underside of the tomato.  When you are done, the crock pot should be full.

Add some fresh basil (if you have it) and a good heaping teaspoon of dried oregano, and a teaspoon of salt.  I grew some basil for the first time this year, and it is absolute awesomeness.  It is amazing how it immediately fills the entire kitchen with a heady aroma the second I cut it.  I am lacking in the knife skills department, so I've found a pizza cutter to be a very effective tool for making long cuts like this.  I also use it to cut noodles or wedges for my crescent rolls.

Next step is to take two large serrated knives and work them in opposite directions to cut up the tomatoes until no large chunks are left.  Then cover the crock pot and switch it to low.  Let it go for about 8-10 hours (or even overnight).  Your house will smell amazing as time goes on...  When it is done, the liquid should have reduced by quite a bit and you should see the level in the crock pot drop by a good amount.  Let it cool for a couple of hours.  This time around, I started in the early afternoon.  I got up with Dean around 1 am (he was leaving to hike Long's Peak) and turned off the crock pot.  I let it sit, uncovered, until I got up again at seven, and by then it was cool enough to bag it.

Using a 4 cup liquid measuring cup, ladle out the tomato sauce until you reach 28 oz.  Why 28?  Because that is the usual size of can that is called for in recipes that use diced or crushed tomatoes (like spaghetti, chili, stew and so forth).  Pour it carefully into a quart-sized ziploc, and then seal it - make sure to push all of the air out as you go.  Then lay it flat on a cookie sheet.  Label it and then place it flat in the freezer.  If you don't have the temporary freezer space for a cookie sheet, lay the bag on top of a flat surface, like a pizza box or something.  This way, it will freeze nice and flat.  Then, once it is frozen solid, you can store it upright, or stack several of them together.  To defrost one, I recommend putting it on a plate and leaving it in your fridge over night - or your counter for several hours.   A full crock pot will yield about 6 - 7 of these bags.  This whole process took me about 45 minutes, plus the cooking and cooling time.  The taste is absolutely amazing and well worth it!

I love it best with elbow macaroni.  I just add several ladle-fulls on top of the cooked macaroni in a bowl.  Yum!  Like I said, you can use it whenever a recipe calls for diced, crushed or stewed tomatoes.  Enjoy!

Camping, the Girl Scout way

Last weekend we went camping at Meadow Mountain Girl Scout Ranch with our Girl Scout troop.  We went with five other families - yes it was for the whole family, not just moms and girls.  We were situated in a cluster of units, called 'tabins' (stupid name) that surrounded a campfire ring, tables, and a supply shed.  Here is our tabin.  It had eight bunks (the most uncomfortable sleeping platforms on this earth), a wooden floor, and a split between wood and canvas walls.  It was actually very nice to have room to spread out and we could set up Colin's bassinet near our beds and so forth.  I didn't get a whole lot of sleep on this campout, but it was nicer than being in a tent.

There were three main activities that the girls were focusing on during this campout.  Now, Rylan is too young to be doing badge work yet, but she will get a couple of participation badges out of it.

First up was making gorp.  Every family brought something to add to the mix...

It was very good - and was going to come in handy for the next activity - Geocaching.  There were seven (I think) geocaches spread out over the property, just for the purpose of the scouts to find them.  We split into three teams, each with a GPS and waypoint coordinates, and set out.

The camp property is pretty vast... this was going to be a bit of a hike!



This was our team, on our way to our first waypoint. 



Onlookers...



Brush pile.... NOT a bonfire waiting to happen...



Mt. Meeker, to our north...



Another troop was preparing to ride...



A meeting between teams.  There was some confusion about waypoints.



See all the berry seeds?  Bear scat.  Luckily, a few days old...



Now that is a happy hiker!!



We rested the remainder of the afternoon.  The kids explored around the campsite...

Not what you think...



Colin's first time in hiking boots (they were Owen's)

While the older girls settled down to do some Basic First Aid training.  Rylan sat in on this but quickly became bored.  About this time an afternoon rainstorm blew in, so we were in our tabin, napping with the boys, while Rylan was with the rest of the girls.  The girls were also to do some solar cooking with pizza boxes on this day, but the sunshine just never did show up.

Then it was dinner time.  Each family had signed up for one of the meals.  Tonight's dinner was 'Hobo packets'.  This was the highlight of the camp for me - it was an awesome dinner!  To make hobo packets, you can use beef, chicken, maybe even pork, and a variety of vegetables.  We had sliced chicken breast (pre-cooked), raw ground beef, diced potatoes, diced sweet potatoes, sliced zucchini, sliced carrots, and a bag of frozen corn to choose from.  Then you add some sauce or seasoning - jarred spaghetti sauce, salsa, minced onion, S & P, seasoned salt... the list is endless.  You make your packet by taking a generous square of foil, spray it with nonstick spray, make a central pile of the meat, veggies and seasoning you choose, and then wrap it up.  I would put in several dabs of butter for good measure.  Then just nestle it into the hot ashes of the fire, or on the grill plate above the fire, and give it a good 30-45 minutes to cook.  If you are using raw meat, I would go with closer to 45.  Pull it from the ashes, put it on a plate, and open carefully.  The great thing about this dinner is that it stays hot for a long time.  The kids really enjoyed it, and ate a decent helping for a change!

Then it was time for s'mores and a talent show. 

We had a good time, and being able to visit with the other parents was fabulous - especially as a family.  We don't get together as "families" nearly enough in this group - it's mostly just moms and kids - so I like it when dads can be involved too.  This Girl Scout troop is a homeschool troop, so there is a kinship there.

The next morning we all settled in for a group breakfast, and wished Dean and another dad a Happy Birthday and sang to them.



All in all, it was a good experience.  The camp itself was a wonderful facility.  There was plenty of firewood, water and a pit toilet was nearby.  We had a nice shed to store our coolers and food boxes overnight.  There were several other troops in the camp, but we were spread out enough that you couldn't hear them very often.  But.

A couple of concerns...

1) I cannot stand screaming girls.  I just can't.  Especially the screaming for no apparent reason.  Most of the girls slept in the same tabin - so the screaming was intense at times.

2) There was an issue of the older girls being exclusive and shutting others out.  I have no idea, because I was mainly focused on not losing two toddlers in the woods or keeping them away from all things deadly, like the campfire, hot water and the cook stove.  I hope the older ones sort this out - I gather this is an ongoing issue.

3) One girl in particular, (I don't know her very well - in fact this was the first time I had ever met her) did an incredibly mean thing.  I won't repeat it here, but as soon as Dean and I heard her shout out something extremely inappropriate about another little girl, we looked at each other, too stunned to speak.  It reminded me of those horrible camp movies of the 80's, like Little Darlings or something like that.  The wonderful thing was that the other girls immediately told her to not say stuff like that - that it could hurt some one's feelings.  Good for them!! - Huge kuddos for doing the right thing.

But that got me thinking... Girls can be so mean.  The kind of emotional havoc that can ensue when a little queen bee is around can be devastating.  That is one of the primary reasons why I don't want Rylan in public school.  The subversive psychological warfare is unbelievably effective - worse than any bully who takes a swing on the playground or snatches your lunch money.  It's the same stuff that leads older girls to consider suicide when it gets bad enough.  But it seems that, whenever you get a bunch of little girls together, there is an unspoken event taking place. They are categorizing, sorting, sizing each other up, and determining who is on top.  No matter the age.  Alliances form and the low woman on the totem pole is shoved out.  I know.  I was one who was shoved out - in Bluebirds.  I even remember the day it happened - at a meeting at Suzi S.'s house.  That is the sad thing.  You don't ever forget it!

I will try my hardest to prevent it from happening in our own Daisy troop, but I have my concerns.  I suppose, in my role as a Daisy leader, I need to help guide these girls and help them manage their feelings and emotions as they grow (so much happens when their parents aren't watching...), but I don't want my own daughter caught in the fray either!   I suppose this is where I need to consider what is to be gained in the big picture.  I know that, at some point, there will be hurt feelings in our group.  Behaviors will have to be addressed (even more so since some girls are not accustomed to being in a group such as this - I know Rylan isn't), and life lessons will be learned.

There are plans afoot to return to the camp this November.  I'm not sure if this will be a whole family thing again, but I imagine since it might be considerably colder, the little ones would stay home.  We'll see!

On the inside...

Owen's chest x-ray, 9/3/2011

As I sat there, in the little Urgent Care exam room, looking at this copy of Owen's chest x-ray, I couldn't help but feel the very same feelings I had when I first saw him, 20 weeks old, during the ultrasound.  All I could think of was, "Wow.  I made that!"  I made this!  My body put this amazing little person together.  (Sure, sure, I know, Dean gets half the credit, but I'm speaking of the actual, physical product...).  My body regulated every process (spearheaded by explicit instructions from the DNA, of course) that created this little human.  It fed it, protected it, kept it at a certain temperature...  Amazing...  I see his little heart up there and I remember hearing it for the first time when he was ten weeks in utero.  His vertebrae, diaphragm, ribs, lungs...

Oh yeah.  The lungs.  Now those are a problem.  Ever since this little boy caught RSV at ten months of age, those pesky lungs act up every once in awhile.  See that circle?  Pneumonia.  No idea he was sick 24 hours before this chest x-ray was taken.  Really.  No cough.  No wheeze.  Not even a drippy nose.  Sneezing yes.  But of course, our whole family has been sneezing, courtesy of the pollen, for a few weeks now.  Owen got very wheezy and gurgly at bedtime, but steadfastly refused to have a turn on the nebulizer.  I was too tired to argue.  By 6:45 am. when I heard the very distinct sound of him coughing so hard he was throwing up, then it was time to take action.  The first round of Albuterol worked.  Four hours later, it didn't.  No idea, even then, that he was going in a very southern direction.  I didn't even know he had a temperature...  (LAME!)

Urgent Care is great.  Especially since emergency medical care concerning your children has this annoying statistical trend to occur outside of regular pediatrician's office hours.  Our local facility (a block away) is okay, but the one across town is better, so we made the drive and they ushered Owen right on in.  The nurse was terrific, the Dr. was a little annoying.  I know Owen is three, but please don't talk to him like he has a learning disability.  He 'gets' it, and doesn't need to be told that he has bananas in his ear when you turn the otoscope on him.  Geesh.  The x-ray tech (dressed in a glaring bright red shirt that screamed Husker Fan) gave Owen a really hard time for the fact that he was dressed (courtesy of his father) in OU regalia in honor of the first game of the season.

It is not an easy task to get a three year old to stand still for a chest x-ray.

But there it is.  Owen is currently on the mend.  He gets winded going up the stairs.  He enjoys a steamy shower each morning (thanks SIL for the tip) and has been able to sleep pretty well at night.  I don't know what the future holds here.  I suspect that an asthma diagnosis is pending... but he is a long way off from using an inhaler yet.  We also have some uneasy suspicions about Colin as well.  He has been very wheezy for about a month now.  I am wondering if pet hair may be a contributing factor.  Only time will tell.

Last thought.  I am forever grateful that we have the medical insurance that we do.  It is comforting to know that in times of worry - how we are going to pay for it isn't one of them.  We are very, very fortunate.  It is easy to see how one little medical crisis can set into motion a financial disaster. 

Don't do it...

Word of advice...

If you ever feel inclined to look on Facebook for friends from the past, you're going to come upon something unexpected.  Like a name you recognize on another friend's 'friends list'.  And you will stupidly click on that name, even though you know you shouldn't, because you will see something you don't want to see.  And then you see it.  Photos of your exhusband.  With the whore he left you for.  And his two beautiful twin boys.  And then you will throw up.