Summer: Wed., 7/24
The girls began pom-pom work as soon as they woke up this morning, stopping only when a friend arrived for a playdate. They and the friend spent most of their time in the tinkerspace. There is a thick carpet of glitter across the patio. This may challenge my easy-breezy "We'll just hose it down!" mess-management strategy. I can see why a tinkerspace is not for everyone. It requires a high, high tolerance for mess, a tolerance I possess as long as it's outside. Maybe the glitter will act as a kind of fertilizer when I hose it into the grass.
After the playdate, the girls and I had lunch then headed to the pool. It wasn't a very hot day, but the kids said the water was warm, and we stayed nearly three hours. They had a funnel cake for a snack. They played in the tinkerspace when we got home, while I cooked quiche for dinner. (The spinach came from deep, deep in the freezer.)
We had to do the pre-housecleaning cleanup tonight, always terrible, and especially difficult this time because they had absolutely trashed the basement. By "trashed" of course I mean, lovingly, "had played enthusiastically for several days with a lot of different things." I don't make them clean up the basement playroom--that's their space, and they can leave out all their stuff and just keep going back to it day after day--EXCEPT the day before housecleaning. Then it all gets picked up, organized, and put away. It is not fun. Sometimes they make it fun, actually, forbidding me to go down with them, telling me they're going to make a giant mess and then "surprising" me with a perfectly picked up room. This was not one of those days. We all worked together. One of us may have worked harder than the others, who were trying to sweep things into a pile with the horse-head-end of their hobby horses. Then we picked up the mudroom, and all the yarn and pom-poms from the living room, then the bedrooms.
Greta spent some time writing in her summer journal tonight, writing entries about our week in Connellsville, and she got so caught up in her memories that she began sobbing because she misses Gra and Pop-Pop so much. She sobbed for half an hour, face pressed into Pot Belly's head, and said the only thing that will make her feel better is going back to Gra and Pop-Pop's house. Even knowing we'll all be at the beach together in two days wasn't helping. She said she wants to go to Connellsville tomorrow, and then to the beach. Poor little babe.
Once she finally calmed down she asked me to give her a dream, which I do sometimes when she can't fall asleep or wakes up in the night for some reason. Usually it involves some kind of repetitive collection, like walking through a garden and discovering tiny kittens, and collecting them in a basket. Etc. A very Greta- centric version of counting sheep. Tonight I gave her a dream about rescuing starfish that were stranded on the sand, and putting each one back into the ocean. I almost put myself to sleep.
This post has been all about Greta! Lucia was around today too. But she wasn't causing trouble or sobbing so she gets less space in this post. She did call me "weird" and roll her eyes at me today, and when I expressed my horror, she said she was growing up and she needed to do those things to express her feelings. Lordy.
After the playdate, the girls and I had lunch then headed to the pool. It wasn't a very hot day, but the kids said the water was warm, and we stayed nearly three hours. They had a funnel cake for a snack. They played in the tinkerspace when we got home, while I cooked quiche for dinner. (The spinach came from deep, deep in the freezer.)
We had to do the pre-housecleaning cleanup tonight, always terrible, and especially difficult this time because they had absolutely trashed the basement. By "trashed" of course I mean, lovingly, "had played enthusiastically for several days with a lot of different things." I don't make them clean up the basement playroom--that's their space, and they can leave out all their stuff and just keep going back to it day after day--EXCEPT the day before housecleaning. Then it all gets picked up, organized, and put away. It is not fun. Sometimes they make it fun, actually, forbidding me to go down with them, telling me they're going to make a giant mess and then "surprising" me with a perfectly picked up room. This was not one of those days. We all worked together. One of us may have worked harder than the others, who were trying to sweep things into a pile with the horse-head-end of their hobby horses. Then we picked up the mudroom, and all the yarn and pom-poms from the living room, then the bedrooms.
Greta spent some time writing in her summer journal tonight, writing entries about our week in Connellsville, and she got so caught up in her memories that she began sobbing because she misses Gra and Pop-Pop so much. She sobbed for half an hour, face pressed into Pot Belly's head, and said the only thing that will make her feel better is going back to Gra and Pop-Pop's house. Even knowing we'll all be at the beach together in two days wasn't helping. She said she wants to go to Connellsville tomorrow, and then to the beach. Poor little babe.
Once she finally calmed down she asked me to give her a dream, which I do sometimes when she can't fall asleep or wakes up in the night for some reason. Usually it involves some kind of repetitive collection, like walking through a garden and discovering tiny kittens, and collecting them in a basket. Etc. A very Greta- centric version of counting sheep. Tonight I gave her a dream about rescuing starfish that were stranded on the sand, and putting each one back into the ocean. I almost put myself to sleep.
This post has been all about Greta! Lucia was around today too. But she wasn't causing trouble or sobbing so she gets less space in this post. She did call me "weird" and roll her eyes at me today, and when I expressed my horror, she said she was growing up and she needed to do those things to express her feelings. Lordy.
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