Silly Haiku Wednesday

Jenn's theme this week: EDUCATION.

So, you know that I'm denying the reality that school has started, that my tall boy is a senior (so weird: he was seven just a minute ago . . . ) and that once again I have been thrust against my will into the hugger-mugger, frenetic pace of the American public school year. But I will put on my big-girl panties and proceed:

Carpool Cuties

Heading back to school,
my urchins are less than thrilled
to begin again.

My dad always said,
"Don't let your books get in the
Way of your learning."

And Dad said (a lot):

"Quick! What is eight times seven?!?"
(Times tables. They sucked.)

Here's what I love:

. . . Cookouts at Coleen's house.

Look at this roasting corn! She bought it at a roadside stand, where they were weeping with gratitude when customers bought their end-of-season produce. Funny -- she didn't buy any tomatoes . . . .

Look! A teenager doing the dishes! Coleen's tall boy was even all scoldy when I tried to put the non-dishwasher-safe vintage plate in the dishwasher. It was awesome!

Good food and even better friends --
it was a fine end to the summer.

Gearing Up

School starts tomorrow (groan, sob, whine, sniffle, gag: choose any response you like), but my high school urchins were busy last week, helping out with freshman orientation.

The tall boy is the grand pooh-bah of this club, and did some heavy recruiting among the newest Bulldawgs (always spelled this way). (Yes. It's annoying.)

Making his "Join or Die" poster, he got a little help from got completely shoved out of the way by his sister, who is all about the signage and propaganda, especially when it involves playing with art supplies. These two really rocked the stencils and rubber cement.

I showed up to help serve lunch, which turned out to be the easiest job I've had all year. You know how when you help out at the elementary school or the middle school, volunteering means running around like a crazy person trying to do twelve things at once, while also herding children who might as well be cats for all the listening they do?

Well, at the high school (at least on this day), here's what I did:

Me: Hey, sophomore strong boy whose name escapes me -- please unload all these cases of water on that table over there.
Him: OK!
Me: Excuse me, efficient-looking senior girl, where do you want me to put these chips?
Her: Oh, I'll do that! Oh -- and would you like a Coke?
Me: Why, yes! Yes, I would!

It started well . . . .

So we went to this awesome water park on Friday -- trying to squeeze those last drops of fun out of the summer before school starts on Tuesday. And we really had just the most excellent time -- me and my girl urchins and Coleen and her girl urchins. There were slides and pools and a faux lazy river. What could be better?

Coleen and her oldest girl, Jolie Blonde.

We stuffed ourselves silly with ice cream, funnel cake, chili dogs, popcorn chicken, and more ice cream. Some of us just ate ice cream. Now, that's good parenting!

Our friends, Sam and Sylvia, joined us for part of the day -- and a visit with Sam and Sylvia makes any day a little bit sunnier.

Check out Sylvia on the lazy river!

And the best news is -- once again I can be nominated for Bad Mother of the Year! This took some doing, let me tell you. Just because my oldest girl slipped and fell didn't automatically guarantee me a nomination. I also had to ignore her occasional muttering about how her wrist really kind of hurt, plus I had to badger her into taking pictures with her bum wrist, too. It takes a lot of work if you want that Bad Mother nomination, but I have always been dedicated to excellence.

Some people might have rested on their laurels at this point, but I really impressed the judges by letting her go to the high school football game that night, instead of taking her to an urgent care facility to get her wrist x-rayed. Hey! It was the first game of the season!

So you can just imagine how proud I was at 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning, when the Emergency Room doctor gave us the fabulous news -- yes! Her wrist is, in fact, broken. I'm so happy I could cry.

Local Tourist Goes Solo

The tall boy ditched the gaggle of girls (i.e. us) as soon as we hit Union Station for our big city adventure last week. He was a man with a mission, and he headed straight to the Library of Congress.

He is old enough now to get a Library of Congress card, which grants him reading room privileges and access to most of the Library's resources. This is really just the coolest thing ever, as far as he is concerned -- and I have to say I agree with him. He can now go sit in the shockingly lovely main Reading Room and studiously peruse books brought to him by gracious and knowledgeable librarians. It's geek heaven, I'm telling you.

tangent: The Library of Congress main Reading Room was one of the stars of the second National Treasure movie.

another tangent: So you have to have a reason for requesting privileges at the Library of Congress, and "because it would be the coolest thing ever" is not considered to be a good enough excuse. When I asked the boy what reason he gave when he requested his card, he didn't miss a beat when he responded, "I'm studying the root causes of World War I, with an emphasis on the Wilsonian response to European aggression." Didn't practice that in front of the mirror too much, did he?

From the Library of Congress the tall boy walked down Capitol Hill and on to the National Mall, so he could go to his absolute favorite museum ever: the National Air and Space Museum . . .

. . . where he saw this painting, which was created by a real live Apollo astronaut, which is really just so cool, don't you think? The tall boy sure did. He waxed all eloquent about how Alan Bean uses his astronaut stuff as he paints his pieces -- for example, you can see texture created by boot prints on this painting, and those actual boots walked on the actual moon! For real!

The tall boy's final stop was the National Gallery of Art, where he thought he was going to look at a lot of different stuff -- but instead got he sucked in to this trippy Salvador Dali painting. He reports that it weirded him out. But in a good way.

Image Credits:
"Reading Room": Library of Congress gift shop
"First Men: Neil Armstrong": Alan Bean, 2007/National Air and Space Museum
"The Sacrament of the Last Supper": Salvador Dali, 1955/National Gallery of Art

Local Tourists

Yesterday I went with a big swarm of girls and one tall boy into Washington, D.C., to do some sightseeing and poking around. We love living so close to this fabulous city, and being able to take advantage of its many pleasures on the spur of the moment. We even ran into the President! My girl looks worried -- probably intimidated by all the Secret Service types.

tangent: For many years the tall boy's birthday celebration consisted of a trip to some Smithsonian -- Air and Space? Love it! Natural History? Coolest dinosaurs ever -- and we know some of the scientists who work there. We've had them over for dinner! American History? An old and dear friend. These days it's the youngest urchin who must make an annual pilgrimage to gaze longingly at her beloved, the one and only Smithsonian mummy.

This trip was planned with the idea that we would do some things that we had never done before -- we would stay away from the "main drag" on the National Mall and see some new stuff. The adventure started when we took the train! Which turned out to be no different than taking the subway! Except that most subway stations don't look like this:

Union Station is an architectural stunner -- and makes a sucky commute seem almost worth it.

The tall boy bailed on us immediately and went off to have his own adventure, which I will report about tomorrow. Shockingly, he didn't see the appeal in traipsing around the city with three moms and seven girl urchins who come up to his waist. Weird.

The rest of us went to the Smithsonian's Postal Museum, which is a small space dedicated to . . . can you guess? The best part was that a nice woman encouraged us to begin a stamp collection, and even provided us with stamps to start out! She had boxes and boxes of canceled stamps from all over the world, and we could choose any six for our own collections. We each chose a theme and plunged in, and I got a little OCD and crazed about it.

An urchin not my own obsessed with me, and finally the nice lady had to make harrumphing noises about lunch -- or I think we would still be there.

My youngest girl chose birds as her theme . . .

. . . while I was surprised to find that there are gorgeous stamps from all over the world, celebrating various events in the life of Jesus. And we got to use tweezers, and a magnifying glass -- I felt so philatelical! <-- a real word! Other urchins thrilled themselves by "driving" a mail truck and learning about the joys of direct mail -- which means they learned how to to send themselves junk mail.

We traveled on by subway from the Postal Museum to the National Geographic Hall of the Explorers -- normally an exhibition space -- which unfortunately for us was being renovated. We were able to see a cool photo gallery of lions and cheetahs.

tangent: People just walk all over these beautiful brass medallions set into the floor! Hmmph!

This urchin (who reminds me so much of myself at her age that it makes my heart hurt -- although she's not my own personal urchin) was mesmerized and thrilled and a little grossed out by the up-front bluntness of the predator and prey film footage.

By the time we walked to our last new adventure (a gallery devoted to the textile arts), the adventurous urchins were not so much about the exploring new experiences, and more about the finding new and unique places to sit down.

Good thing we had milkshakes and the tall boy waiting for us at the train station!

Silly Haiku Wednesday -- Just Under the Wire

This week's haiku theme over at Jenn's fabulous blog is free-style -- which means I can express whatever is on my mind and in my heart. And what's on my mind is tragic, people:

Oh, no! The school year
Starts next week. I'm not ready
For that hectic pace!

Good-bye to summer.
Sleeping in, trips to the beach --
All behind me now.

I'm volunteering
Again! Somebody stop me
Before it's too late!