Spaztastic

Is this not the most incredibly dorky thing you've ever seen?!?! I love it!! Fancy dancing indeed! The important thing is that Ollie thinks he is a total stud. Man, I love this kid!

 

Oh and by the way this is the kitchen of our new (temporary) house in Belle Meade. It's nice if not completely child friendly. We are incredibly grateful to have a (solid) roof over our heads and are so grateful for the many kindnesses and blessings we've received. This deserves a longer post obviously, but I'm heading to bed. 

Update from Nashville

Pictures to follow but here's an update on our "adventures" in Nashville this weekend. This is a letter that Ryan's dad sent out to Ryan's brothers and sisters this morning. He sums up the situation better than I could have. I especially love his post script. We are currently taking a break from moving out of our "treehouse" and Ryan is incredulous that I am using precious time to blog. I sent him to get me a lemonade so I can furiously type this out before he gets back. 

Dear Family,

 

We just flew in from our trip to see Ryan and Anna in Nashville.  It turned out to be quite a weekend.  I am going to give you an update because I am not sure when Ryan and Anna will be back on line.

 

Let me explain.  R&A have been renting this lovely home.  Lots of property and lots of trees - big trees.  The home is furnished so they've had all their stuff in storage.  They finally decided to move their belongings to the basement of their rental a week ago last Saturday.  Wouldn't you know it started to rain and the basement leaked.  Ryan spent hours getting things up on cardboard.

 

We arrived and had beautiful weather until Saturday.  It started to rain again, pretty hard.  The leak reappeared.  We wrung out a lot of towels and then found a low spot near the foundation that was the source of the water.  The landlord arrived and reshaped the area and put plastic over it and things improved greatly.  In the mean time we had been to Home Depot where Ryan had some 2X4's cut into square blocks figuring they would be a lot better than cardboard.  By the time we arrived home it looked like the landscaping fix was working and we were out of the water even though it was still raining.  Consequently, we didn't put any blocks down.

 

Instead we went to the Grand Ole Opry and had a blast.  By this time Nashville had already had over 6" of rain. In fact, it was mentioned several times during the show that some of their backup singers and musicians had not been able to get in.  Then it started raining even harder.  The trip taking the baby sitter home was memorable.

 

Incidentally a random factoid.  Nashville's previous 24 hour record rainfall was 6.6" during a hurricane.

 

Sure enough there was more water in the basement but it still seemed containable with towels.  We went to bed.

 

Church was called off because the creek running by the building had flooded the parking lot by Saturday afternoon.

 

To jump ahead just a bit Nashville wound up with 13" of rain, double the previous record.  The place is a disaster.  The place where we took a pleasant walk on Friday, which is at least 30 feet above the Cumberland River, is under water.  The tracks of the commuter train we looked at are mangled.  The Opry Hotel where we had dinner had to evacuate 1500 guests to schools.  I will be interested to see what happened to the church.

 

Unfortunately, thousands of people were forced out of their homes.  Several members of their ward lost their homes including some of R&A's very close friends and bad news - Ryan and Anna are homeless - sort of.

 

About 10 AM Sunday during the height of the storms with water running like a river through their front yard about 50 feet from their door suddenly there was a very loud crash.  I thought "That is the loudest thunder I've ever heard."  It wasn't thunder.  A 50' Oak tree from the hill in back had toppled over on the house.  Soon the fire alarm went off and water was coming through the ceiling from holes in the roof.  It was enough to spoil your nap.  We left - in a hurry.  Ryan drove us to the first ward member they knew and without calling in advance walked up and said, "Can we come live with you?!"  (Well maybe they just asked if they could camp there for a little while.) 

 

Ryan and I went back.  The landlord and some friends from the ward also came. (Incidentally, the landlord had a foot of water in the house he is living in.  He is actually renting that place so his landlord was there trying to get the water out of his basement.) Ryan's landlord had called the fire department who never showed up.  Understandably.  They were struggling to rescue people in homes submerged in water and nobody's life was in danger at Ryan's.  Fortunately his fire alarm was a false alarm, probably caused by water in some electrical circuit.

 

We got clothes, the roast Anna had in the oven, moved furniture to rooms that weren't leaking, really put their stuff in the basement up on blocks and covered things with tarps and wished like crazy we could get that tree off the house.  Removing that tree is going to take some real expertise.  In the mean time the sister Anna was with said, "My brother-in-law lives around the comer but they are out of town for a month.  I'll see if you can stay there."  We all stayed there last night.  Fortunately R&A and kids have some place warm and dry for awhile at least.

 

I talked with Ryan a few minutes ago and they've spent the day looking for places to rent.  They think they have some good leads .

 

They have a good attitude.  They are especially grateful everyone is safe.  In the end they feel blessed and they are considering what could have happened to them and what has happened to many others.  But they have a lot of details to work through.  I am sure they would appreciate an interest in your prayers.

 

Love Dad

 

PS Nashville really is a fun place to visit.

Preschool Atelier

I hosted Joy School again this week. The theme of the unit is "the Joy of Imagination and Creativity" so I thought I'd go to town with some big messy art ideas that I've been wanting to try. So we mostly didn't follow the curriculum guidelines, which is fine. It gives me plenty of alternatives for Wednesday when we have Joy School again because -- believe you me-- I am NOT up for another day of big and messy art!!

I really love teaching Joy School (I do!) but it doesn't leave me exhilarated. It leaves me completely and utterly drained. I don't know how real preschool teachers manage it day in and day out. I guess they don't have to do it in their own home for one thing.  But for me it is completely exhausting to deal with even just 6 rambunctious little characters.

When I was little I attended a wonderful preschool that serves as my inspiration when I think about the type of formative early learning experiences I'd like my kids to have. I know that the situation is different (teaching at home in a small co-op vs. organized preschool comprised of the progeny of Nobel-aspirant scientists) but the experiences I had there made a huge impact on me. I think about the VERY cool things we did (amazing art projects like Japanese fish printing; building wooden boxes with real saws and hammers and nails; ice skating on the flooded tennis courts every week in the winter) and I think...do I take the time/make the effort to let my kids have these great experiences? Do I trust them? Do I let them EXPERIENCE the whole big messy world, or is it too much trouble to clean up/put back on track when things get a little out of control? I think about those teachers -- Mrs. Proudfoot, my teacher when I was 5 -- lacing up 12 little pairs of ice skates and think how did she do it??? She must surely be a SAINT. I really want to be that kind of person but even doing messy art with 6 little kids for 2 hours makes me want to sleep for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I hope the kids had fun, it certainly looked like they were. And it doesn't even look that messy, but this is just the beginning. I put the iPhone away as the paint really started to fly. For the record, I tried to set up three "stations", the first was fly-swatter painting, the second was painting with beaded necklaces, and the last was at the easel with different kinds of brushes and sponges.

   

Part of my stress can be attributed to Elliot trying to drink the paint water at every opportunity and there not being a working spigot to wash up outside. Somehow, despite my best efforts these little hands touched every surface in our house from the back door to the bathroom. Thank goodness for washable, non-toxic paint!

Easter Pics

We got a new camera, which is great...except I don't know how to use it. I guess I could read the manual--Ryan has, eager beaver overachiever --which is why he is the only one taking pictures these days.  So while I unproductively sit and wonder how I'm going to figure out how to use the camera Ryan has enjoyed having the camera to himself and not having to hear my unsolicited opinions about family photography.

 

This is an actual picture Ryan took last night of water dropping into a bowl of water. Pretty cool. Ryan wants to credit Tim Embody for his photo equipment and help.

But he has also taken some great pictures of what I find to be MUCH more appealing subjects...Oliver and Elliot. Here are some from an Easter egg hunt last weekend at a friend's house and our own little Easter egg hunt this morning at home.

            

And this is my favorite one of all. Man, I love this kid. He is just so dear. He has taken to showing his love for me by picking me "beautiful yellow dandelions." He brings me handfuls of them and asks "Do you love me?" I tell him that of course I love him and that his flowers make me so happy. Since he picks just the blossoms (no stems) I can't  exactly put them in a vase, but he wants me to keep them, so we float them in bowls of water. It's not exactly a Martha Stewart arrangement, but you can't beat the sentiment. 

Actually Oliver doesn't always feel so loving towards me. Sometimes he gets really angry with me and tells me that he  a) wants me to "go to jail for all night long" or b) will "put me in a volcano" neither of which sound particularly appealing. He also tries to lay down ultimatums (or give "consequences" in the current parenting parlance), but his early attempts are laughably pathetic. He doesn't really understand that the "consequence" should be something that impacts the other person, not himself. So he will say things like, "Mom, if you put me in time-out I will not play with my toys ever again!!!" Or "If you make me go to bed I will never do anything fun again!" I love that he imagines that somehow HIS not having any fun would be punishing for ME. 

Boys' Life

 

Oliver was really excited to play soccer this spring and by a stroke of good fortune we were able to get him onto a team even though the league registration closed months ago. Incidentally, this team is made up of all the kids whose parents missed the deadline...which makes me VERY comfortable. I'm in my element. Slacker parents unite!! The coach seems awesome. His first tip for these budding Peles and Ronaldinhos was "the guys on the other team will be wearing different shirts." Yeah, so if they can keep that in mind, and remember which goal is theirs they should be in good shape. Oliver is really excited about the IDEA of playing soccer but he is not too keen on participation when it comes right down to it. Here he is not doing push-ups with the rest of his team (the Comets).

What he does love to do is swing on the swing set. He and Elliot have a blast in the front yard. Hopefully at some point it will stop raining and warm up so we can enjoy more time outdoors.

 

Letting The Good Times Roll

Despite the fact that we are so far from so many of the people we love we are actually really enjoying our first 5 weeks in Nashville. Last night Ryan and I went out on a much needed "date night" and checked out the local music scene. Actually, we probably checked out the tourist music scene since it was Saturday night on the main honkytonk strip, but no matter, it was fun and we heard some really awesome live music. We went to a place called Robert's Western World and heard some "traditional" country music. Here's a video clip of the band.

OK, we OBVIOUSLY (oh, on SO many levels) did NOT participate in Nude Karaoke, but we thought it was worth documenting that this sort of thing goes on here in Nashville, TN. It struck us as funny that some people might actually SEEK OUT the opportunity to sing naked in front of a crowd of strangers. Really, I can't IMAGINE a more humiliating experience...I mean, don't people have nightmares about this type of thing? What kind of bizarre torture would that be? I shudder to think.

I Am A Child of God

Oliver sings "I Am A Child of God". Clearly we don't have a musical prodigy on our hands but we think he's cute.