Catching up

We spent yesterday morning at the outpatient surgery unit of a local hospital. A year of ear and sinus infections came to it's seemingly inevitable conclusion when Mr. First Grade got tubes put in his ears and adenoids taken out of his head. He's already hearing better and slept like a log last night. He spent the rest of yesterday and will spend most of today building puzzles, coloring and watching movies. Don't wanna bump that nose on anything. It reminded me of something I wrote around his fifth birthday, when the roller coaster ride of infections kicked into high gear, kitty was still alive and I was very thankful for a little discovery called penicillin.

This is the smile … the smirk … the kiss I wouldn’t have each day if life went “according to plan.” This is the place where new ideas are voiced, where passion is expressed, and where vegetables shall never trespass.

This is the smile of a boy who will now be known as Mr. 5, whose smile greets me each morning over the top of a Pop Tart box and whose lips each day utter the words “Oh, Mommy, I just love you!”

This is also the place where the amoxicillin began its attack on the double ear infection that felled him. He’s back from the 102-degree brink, so many, many thanks to the scientist who figured out mold can kill more than cheese.

These same scientists should be thanked for keeping kitty from peeing everywhere except the litter box. Poor little furry witch. Born on a farm, she has little use for people, except Hubby, who feeds her. And she especially dislikes me as I am the one who administers her antibiotic, which has killed the urinary tract infection. If you have never given a pill to a cat, there is no way to describe to you the noises that emanate from deep within her. They are lion-sized! Fur flies. Claws flail, but I love her and I stay until the pill is down. Sometimes this takes three or four tries, but how do I explain not helping kitty to that sweet-smiled boy?

So, life didn’t go exactly according to plan last week, but that’s OK. Even with modern science there's no planning the moment when a child will enter your life, no planning when he will get sick or when he will get better. There's just great joy when he arrives safely and great relief when he feels better. Besides, if life didn’t happen while I was planning other things I might run out of steamed vegetables at dinner each night and eat the Pop Tarts myself each morning.

So yes, great joy when he arrived safely from surgery ... I've never been through anything like that nor had any of my kids and I don't like anesthesia. And I'm also finding great relief in his comments about things being too loud.

In other news, the first full weeks of summer vacation have been eventfully uneventful. There's been the pool, the water gun fights, the barbecues the scrapbooking days with friends. In other words, full days of relaxation. I love summer break. Big Big news for Mr. Third Grade ... He's off on that two-wheeler and no one can stop him! He has the scabbed knees to prove the hard work he's put in these few weeks and is champing at the bit to stretch my apron strings.

Now, an update on Ready, Set, Relax. Calendars in a place as enormous as a school district begin to come together well before I'm thinking about buying notebooks and new jeans. The board has been working hard to find a date that will work for the upcoming school year, and I might know something more concrete this week. I've been spurred on by the support of one of the assistant superintendents and by the the board's efforts to make something work in the upcoming school year instead of putting it off until 2008-2009. I'll update as soon as I know more.

One last thing ... The Lady Fourth Grade and I together selected a cook book at the end-of-the-year book fair and the kids are having a blast. I've had to up the output of all the recipes because they've been cooking these snacky recipes as family night dinners so Daddy can try them, too. I'll put the homemade chicken fingers in sometime this week. But the following is such an amazing thirst quencher I have to share it for this roasty weekend. Make it with a short person you love and Enjoy!

Party Punch

(From Better Homes and Gardens Snack Attack!)
2 cups cherry juice blend (we used Juicy Juice)
1 6-oz. can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
3 11-oz. bottles cherry flavored sparkling water
Ice

Combine the juice and water and chill until just before serving. Stir in sparkling water and enjoy!

"Whaddaya gonna do?"

I’ve never seen an episode, but I am fascinated by the buzz. Of course, I’m especially fascinated by the unrelenting presence of family tables in popular culture. I think perhaps the truest portrayal in most recent television was the Barone family, where the kids almost never ate with the adults, but were set to the side (except in the finale). Even TV families struggle to find a way to get together for dinner. :)

When they want to show the “regular people” side of a character or group of characters, screenwriters seem to lean on the table: The Sopranos, Everybody Loves Raymond, Sex and the City, Friends, Seinfeld, Happy Days, the Brady Bunch, Leave it to Beaver.

After all, ya gotta eat. But sometimes I wonder if a bit of the symbolism isn’t lost on viewers, especially when we’re told how few people actually gather at a table regularly with their family. Do you think cultural references to the family table might one day end up as amusing as Gordon Gekko’s Wall Street cell phone?

Kee-Ya!

If the scribbled up mess that is my December calendar page is “the most wonderful time of the year” then May is rapidly becoming the second-most wonderful time of the year. Whew! At last it’s June and we’ve finally been released from the clutches of the classroom, the bus, the homework and are savoring the first day of summer. Really and truly, the three of them haven’t been able to decide what to do all day! I’m ready for some wide open calendar space and they’re ready to just run unscheduled. Together the three of them always find a way to fill the time.

As for May, there was Field Day … there were Graduation Parties … I helped run a Book Fair … and of course there were the last minute thises and thats that make finishing a school year so exciting for a kid. Squeeze in the big party, Mother’s Day, a karate tournament, the regular schedule and some work on our own Ready, Set, Relax program. Then shake it up with a couple of days away on a trip for just the two of us and what you have is a big mess of a calendar page! :)

In between scheduled events I was thinking about posting, lots of time to think about posting but no keys or pens or papers on which to jot anything down.

Mostly, though, I’ve been thinking again about the power of a shared meal … how I feel a difference inside myself when my family lets that power run out of us, skipping time at the table for coming and going as we’re hungry or watching a movie while we eat dinner.

I’ve been thinking a lot about power … it’s a word I’ve been hearing at karate often. “You know what you’re supposed to do,” I’ll be told about what I’m learning. “But you need more power.”

Well, how on Earth do I get that? My body is what it is … there’s no more power in it! Of course it would be disrespectful to say this out loud, but in my head I’m laughing away. Ya, right, a 37-year-old Couch Potato is going to generate pOWer. Then they set us to practicing with a focus here or a focus there … never an all inclusive task of putting more power into every single thing I do, but try this on your punch or that on your block. Just concentrate on that and see what happens.

And I find more power. Right there inside myself. Power I never knew I had.

And so it is with a shared meal. Try something a little different such as sitting at the table or turning off the TV, especially now that it is summer. If you have one of those lovely back yards with a nice table try eating out there with your kids. (An easy way to get no TV!) Focus on one little change and like my punches, you might find more power than you ever knew was at your fingertips.