Buon weekend

I have not worn more than a light jacket since Friday, and for most of today, I didn't even need that. What a thrill. February always issues this mighty tease: many years I'll even pull out a pair of shorts, wear them happily (despite my fish-belly colored legs) and then watch sadly as the temperature plummets two days later and my cute duds must again be put away. Last year we had a rather protracted respite from the cold, and I sowed seeds and planted some seedling kale. Mistake! All met death by freeze not much later. Finally I've learned my lesson. I worked in the yard but only focused on tasks of the tidying, readying sort. I have checked our spring and summer clothing stores but have not considered packing away even an item of winter gear. We took full advantage of the sun and relative warmth -farmers market! playing outside! climbing trees! baring our arms!- but did nothing more than enjoy those in-the-present thrills. Indeed, more cold, maybe snow, are to return starting tonight.

Yesterday we went to a gingerbread house making party and had a lovely time. The kids were wild for the endless candy options and frosting-glued so much of each to their house walls that their creations were as thick as they were tall. I know doctors say that sugar doesn't actually cause hyperactive aftermath in kids but I also know many a mom who would definitely try to dispute that. My crew and their buddies were bouncing off the walls; just gleeful to the max.

This morning, Jack had a birthday party to attend so Ol and I made Mardi Gras cookies (it's March 4; late this year) and spent an hour at the farmers market. He tasted every pickle at an overflowing stand and decided on the Super Sours while I opted for the Santa Fe carrots and turnips (lots of cumin!). Then he ambled over to EcoFriendly Foods (our preferred meat stall) and told Jordana that he very much wanted some "sausage of pig." I was in hysterics. I suspect she was too but in her dear way, she took his request very seriously and guided him to the tasting table. Someone gave him a first taste, and Ol said, "No, not like that." The second taste was Tasso (a cured pork that I've never seen out of Louisiana but which is a staple in real Louisiana jambalaya so it's awesome that EcoFriendly makes it), and Ol said, "Yes, this is it! This one!" Delightful.

We bought some stunning carrots and admired these long-neck squash. He munched on pickles the entire time and convinced me to buy more apple cider.

Finally it all became too much, and people, you have not seen a meltdown like the one Mr. O had tonight. I was both laughing and dying. That poor kid was so flummoxed about a paper snake he made Jack make for him but "Jack put a black line on the wong side and it's not wight...gaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Tears, rivers of tears, heavy chest, short breaths. It was just wild. I put him in the bath and told him to take deep breaths. "I CAN'T! I JUST WANT TO MAKE MY SNAKE TONIGHT BUT JACK MADE THE BLACK LINE ON THE WONG SIDE. GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH."

If you can believe it, I took that opportunity to trim his hair. Tom thought I was nuts but I was looking for a distraction. It kinda worked until he noticed all the hair in his bath at which point he was again overtaken by giant, sweeping gales of wail: "But LOOK!!!! Now there is SO MUCH HAIR IN MY BATH AND THE WATER IS TOO LOW. TOO LOW!!!! I WANT TO MAKE A SNAKE!"

He was put to bed shortly thereafter. Tom is now making fajitas, and I'm glad tomorrow is Monday/schoolday.

Jack

This morning while the kids ate their breakfasts, I attempted to finalize some camp plans for them. Because of their disparate ages yet immense desire to be together (can't do same programs but can be at same camps), scheduling their various plans is more challenging than solving a Rubik's Cube while blind. Nonetheless, with one eye fully open, the other struggling to keep up and a large coffee in hand, I persevered and met success. Each is doing Jedi engineering with Legos and each is doing a sewing camp, though of course not at the same times. I love that these were their choices. "Jack, do you want to do tennis or sewing?"

"Sewing, Mom, it's really more my thing."

I just love, love this. I can't sew a button on a flat sheet of cloth and have zero interest in learning, but I realize that skills with a thread and needle are useful, and the fact that Tom can both sew and iron really makes him that much more attractive to me. I suspect such will be the case for my boys; when someone falls in love with one of them, she/he will be thrilled if he can, in addition to being awesome, felt a bag and mend things. It's the flip side of DVD installation and tire changes. Three cheers for ability!

Jack has been studying money at school and is obsessed with making change, understanding worth, knowing cost and value, and saving versus spending. Naturally this is a great way to learn math but it's also an excellent means of imparting age-appropriate lessons about the role of money in life. That he understands what $5 is and how long it can take him to earn (dusting all the baseboards in the house earned him $1, for example) better puts into perspective that a half-gallon of milk is also roughly $5 and wow, that's a lot so let's not waste it.

He inquired about the cost of camp, and when I showed him the total for one week for him and Ol, he was floored. I don't want the kids to feel guilty about what it costs to raise them nor do I want them to worry, but at the same time, I believe that knowing these things and understanding what is required to make them possible (work, saving, etc) makes it much more likely that they will appreciate their opportunities and not take them for granted.

Jack and I ended up talking a bit about how lucky he and Ol are and how many children don't ever get to go to camp or the like. I can't remember exactly what he asked, but I told him about The Fresh Air Fund, an organization I've always loved and admired. Perhaps you've heard of it too; founded in 1877, it has long given low-income children from New York City the chance to spend summers in the country for free.

"When The Fresh Air Fund began, New York City was overflowing with children living in crowded tenements. Many of these youngsters were hit by a tuberculosis epidemic, and “fresh air” was considered a cure for respiratory ailments. More than 130 years ago, the Reverend Willard Parsons, a minister of a small, rural parish in Sherman, Pennsylvania, asked members of his congregation to provide country vacations as volunteer host families for New York City's neediest children. This was the beginning of The Fresh Air Fund. By 1881, the work of The Fresh Air Fund was expanding so rapidly that Reverend Parsons asked for and secured support from The New York Tribune. By 1888, The Fresh Air Fund was incorporated as “The Tribune Fresh Air Fund Aid Society.” Today, The Fresh Air Fund continues to benefit from the support of the media with invaluable assistance from The New York Times."

He asked how it was free for the children who get to attend, and I told him about donations and scholarships. We went to the website and he saw that $21 purchases a bus ticket to camp for one child, $50 provides a box of art supplies, $91 feeds a camper healthy meals for a week, etc. I could see him thinking and then he scurried upstairs. Just a minute later, he presented me with $10.50 from his bank.

"This is enough for half a bus ticket, Mom."

People, I am crying again as I relay this story to you. Sobbing. I started crying then and he looked worried and asked why, and I just almost couldn't get it out, just how proud I am of the person he is, how much he inspires me to be and do better, even when he's been filibustering for longer than Wendy Davis and I think my ears will bleed.

Oliver then went and got $0.42 from his bank and offered it to me proudly. And I started crying again. And then we all added up the things that seemed most special to us, and I kicked in the rest out of some money I received from Nanny after she died (she would have liked it spent in this way), and I made the donation in honor of Jack.

I hope that some wonderful child is helped have a wonderful summer when it finally comes. And I hope Jack can always carry with him the impact he made on me this morning. I hope he saw in my watery eyes and felt in my tight hug that he is such a fine boy and a fine person and that he is loved and valued to the moon and back. I hope that love is like a nugget of security that he can tuck away and hold onto forever, drawing upon it when he needs. I know I now have another such nugget.

He asked me what? Dinner!

So, I'm bathing Ol and J tonight, and with no apparent segue into the topic of man parts (but honestly, for many males, is a segue ever needed?), Oliver presented me with this query: "If you don't have testicles, does that make you weak?"

Y'all, I swear to god my feminist hackles were at full attention before I could fully process this bizarre-o question. Ol was smiling beatifically and nearly drowning in lavender-infused bubble bath so I can hardly imagine he meant anything remotely sexist or judgmental, PLUS he used such awesomely correct terminology that I was proud, but still.

Naturally I disabused him of any such idea but really, testosterone does impart some strength so was I lying to my littlest one? Hmm... Not in any way that matters. That boy needs to recognize that strength does not lie in testicles for pete's sakes.

:)

Anyway.

Because the temps here shot up by about 30 degrees today (I am NOT complaining -#lovewarm- but it's weird), the snow is sheeting off our roof like giant ice bombs. In the midst of making the boys' dinner, it thumped our pantry (a random jutting out of our kitchen that a previous owner literally just tacked on one day) roof so hard the lightbulbs broke. Do you have extra circular fluorescent bulbs lying around your house? Me neither. #winterissoeffingannoying

But I persevered and made the chickpea crepes I'd been salivating over because T had some work bonding thing with laser tag and Mexican food (I know, it's hard) so I could make what I damn well pleased even though it's not Meatless Monday. Hah!

These were so good, and I will definitely make them again. I topped mine with garam masala caramelized onions, lentils and tomatoes, Greek yogurt and some cilantro. Fab!