Monday Morning Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was rainy (thankfully) and full of middle school homework, which was not complete until After 4:00 pm on Sunday, but more on that later...

Friday
Work in the morning and teaching art in the afternoon. This week was all about Chinese brush style paintings to pair with the Lunar New Year feast at the school. Some of the kids "got it" much easier than others. Some were hell bent on finger painting, and one was in tears. Overall, I was impressed with their ability to adjust the brush strokes to meet the style. With watercolors, that can be very difficult. Found out I have the possibility to move into a bigger place, that may be only slightly more expensive, and that excites and unnerves me all at the same time. It would mean that The Boys would no longer have to share a room, and I would have a yard for The Pets again, along with a larger garage. Dinner was burgers, oven fries and baked onion rings for dinner with The Boys and Corky. Went to The Folks' with dessert that Corky made. It was a yummy chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (mine and my Dad's favorite). Had a great visit, though a bit late for us all.

Saturday
Spent the morning arguing with The Oldest about homework. We ended up driving to the ex' gf's house to pick up a needed folder.

As I was driving there, I was reminded (as I often am) of a family I knew back when The Boys were attending preschool. This was a Scandinavian family (and for the life of me I cannot remember which country - wait, Denmark, yep Danish family). No clue why that is so difficult - white cross on a red background for the flag... And one of my college roommates lived in Denmark half of her life. But I also have a dear friend who is Norwegian, Same flag, with the addition of a blue cross atop the white one - so go figure... But I digress. This family really freed me up when it came to kid birthday parties. The one I attended, had the parents inside, drinking tea and coffee (with silver tea service), eating cake and visiting, while the children entertained themselves outside. This was the first party I had ever been to that was not scheduled down to the minute by a terribly overwrought mom, and centered around the birthday kid. This was a party that adults could enjoy by having intelligent and grown up conversations without interruption. It was heaven and has informed my party throwing ever since. That is not to say I didn't plan things for The Boys to do with their friends, but it has been tempered by this memory. Now? The Boys plan their own parties, and I help gather stuff ahead of time, and show up with stuff and food.

Anyway, The Oldest eventually got down to business and mostly completed his homework before bed time. The Youngest spent the day alternating between playing games on his iTouch, and the computer, and asking to go do parkour. This is something he's been watching videos of, and wants to give it a shot. I told him as soon as The Oldest finished his homework we'd head out. Even in the rain. I worked on some stuff on the computer, organized my bills, but mostly knit. I have nearly completed one of the baby hats for Corky's grand nephew. We all went to bed relatively early after the late Friday night.

Sunday
The Oldest got right into finishing his homework first thing in the morning. He also cleaned out his binders, folders and back pack. When all that was finished, my Mom came over to drop off Valentine's treats for The Boys. The surprise was that she included Me and Corky with treats for each of us. Pretty cool. My Mom has really come a long way from where I perceived her to be (whether she really was in that space, or not). Following her visit, we headed out in the light rain to practice parkour, which also turned into an earthworm rescue mission, as it did stop raining, and there were multitudes of worms writhing themselves dry. The Boys picked up about three dozen and got them back to dirt where they have a much better chance of survival. We came home, drenched from rolling around and everyone showered and had hot cocoa. I printed the homework for The Oldest, got out a weekly communication and actually wrote this :-). Also looked at and commented on all of the Shoot Out pics, and continued knitting. I should have the hat finished Monday, then I can start on the next one. The Boys had Mac & Cheese for dinner and I had lentil soup. I researched parkour for kids in my area, and the two nearest offerings are at least a 40 minute drive. Will still see if there is something nearer to home. We all went to bed at a relatively decent hour.