Skipping Town

Sometimes I feel like the kids get me--my weird humor, my inside jokes. Other times, like last night, they look at me like I am an absolute raving lunatic, and a veil drops from my eyes, and I see that I am, yes, actually a little crazy, but I absolutely won't apologize for it because I am nearly half a century old and have been through, and continue to be going through, A Lot. Anyway. Andrew is in Peru, and the girls and I were in the basement (yes, we're still in the basement; more on that in a sec), getting ready to watch a show. Lucia was offering me and Greta an excited, extended explanation of her recent 'discovery' that she has aphantasia--she cannot form images of things in her mind. She claimed she cannot picture an apple. Etc. In response to my skepticism about a) the scientific details of this disorder and b) whether she actually has it, she just kept saying, "Do your research! Do your research!" "You can't say that," I said. " Do...

The school year is finally, finally over. Grades (precalc) have been wrestled out of the ashes; final quizzes and retakes are done; last-minute teacher gifts and notes are given.  Andrew and I went to Greta's eighth-grade Moving Up Day ceremony in the morning. There are a few awards given, and then the eighth-graders receive their Middle School completion certificates. We'd been told that Greta would be receiving an award, but we weren't told which one. We were very surprised when her name was announced as the winner of the eighth-grade award given to a student who "has been consistently outstanding in demonstrating friendliness, loyalty, and sincerity." This is a peer-voted award--truly an award for character. So proud! (Not to brag, but Greta also won the seventh-grade character award, which was faculty-voted.) Her name was called again, as faculty had chosen her (and three other students), for the Middle School Growth Award, given to students who have shown ...

We had a nice family weekend. Saw a lot of both kids, which is unusual in this crazy time of Maycember. It's now June, so Maycember is technically over; and indeed, this week already feels a little less chaotic. Saturday, Greta went to a going-away party for a friend for most of the day; Lucia studied; and Andrew and I did more yardwork. Then Lucia took a break to power-wash the porch and stone walkways in the backyard, a massive and much-needed task. Between last weekend and this weekend, we (well, Andrew) have distributed 60 bags of mulch around the front and back of our house. We've planted flowers. We planted three saplings against the new fence by the retaining wall. We've weeded. Andrew set up a hammock. We are pleased to have reclaimed our yard for the summer--a spectacular yard. It needed to be wrangled back into submission, but now it is glowing. Even Andrew, who spent much of the winter threatening to put the house on the market every time there was some kind of w...