PDA #12: Well-stocked

Jeff's fishing gear really came in handy this week. These scissors with teeny tiny tweezer points -- meant, I'm guessing, for extracting fly hooks from fish lips -- were just the thing for gently pulling out Samuel's forehead stitches, saving me another trip to the doctor.  (He fell on a rock in our yard.) Yes, I'd rather wrangle a 3-year-old for five minutes on the bathroom counter than wait with him for 45 minutes at the clinic, even if the magazines are good. Un-huh. I asked Samuel to hold the scissors up today, thinking that would be a much better photo, but Emma vetoed that as cheesy. Which is just as well because Samuel's posing nearly resulted in more stitches. Silly me.

What I really want to thank Jeff for in this post, however, is doing all the packing and preparations for our boys' trips. Last week Kyle attended Especially for Youth in Logan from Monday to Saturday, and this week is on a camping trip with his church age group. James went camping with his grandpa Wednesday through Saturday last week. Jeff got them ready. He did it ALL. He carefully packed just what they needed. By the time I even registered that the trips were coming up, Jeff was done. Jeff was on top of things and looking out for his children. He saved me a lot of work, too. Way to go, Jeff!

Inner Beauty

Photos: 1. Preparing for Friday's dress rehearsal

3. Emma's entrance at the staging rehearsal (the orchestra was not there yet). 

All performance pictures were taken at this rehearsal.

6. Elise is second from right. 

7. This picture makes me smile, the way Elise faces the rest of the group.

8. Aargh! Degas would not be pleased. Ballet pictures that cut off the feet? 

To be close enough, I was standing right at the orchestra pit, looking upwards. 

(Note to self: next time bring longer lens!) 

Emma is holding her crown because it had fallen off -- but no worries by performance time. 

9. With Grandma Shirley on Saturday. 

Grandpa Jim, Grandma Hatch and Aunt Katie came, too. 

(Other pictures, with them, are still on Jeff's phone.) Thank you for supporting us!

Emma and Elise had their fabulous ballet recital last week. And when I say fabulous, I mean fabulous! This is the type of carefully planned production with original songs and live orchestra. Did you catch that? Live orchestra! The theme was "Once Upon a Time," and the fables and fairy tales portrayed through dance were food for thought in delicious eye candy packaging. In many dances the beautiful costumes became a narrative tool. I especially liked "Sun and Wind," the story of those two elements betting which could get a man to take off his coat.

Emma was a princess among frogs, and Elise was a flower in the story of Snow White. This is Emma's second year of ballet; she started last year at age 11 in a class for older beginners. (This ballet school generally starts girls at age 4.) This year she was several years older than most girls in her class, but I'm so proud of her for working hard and not letting the age difference affect her. I'm also grateful to her wonderful teacher, Circe, for cultivating Emma's confidence. This is Elise's first year of ballet. Last year as soon as the curtains dropped on Emma's recital, previously disinterested Elise leaned over to me and whispered, "Can I take ballet?"

Emma's song about made me cry with its words, "Shouldn't every little girl believe that she's a princess?" But be careful, says the song, because someday a prince will make her his own.

Every parent says it, but it's true -- children grow up too fast! Seeing my "little" girls all dressed up like this gives me a glimpse of the women they will become ... all too soon. Although it must be said the hours prior to the recital were practically Elise's undoing. She was an emotional wreck! As we scrambled around the house getting ready I finally pegged her: she wanted me to say she was more beautiful than Emma. I told her I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't! Yet no amount of "You're both beautiful" and "I love you!" would help. Thankfully the drive to the auditorium was long enough for her to reset. Elise also ended the recital very pleased with how she did, and I was grateful for Emma's sincere compliments to her. So grateful! 

What I appreciate most about the girls' ballet experience is this: for every sequin and tube of mascara; for every yard of taffeta and swipe of shimmery eyeshadow, are hours and hours and HOURS of work with no immediate, easy reward -- a year's worth, almost. Emma had two 1-hour classes a week, with one at 8:30 on Saturday mornings. And getting up was no easy task, I tell you.

So, now we're coming down from the recital high. The girls were stars, but now it's back to the every day. I know though, that their poise and self-assurance on stage can touch most anything else in their lives, especially when hard work goes alongside.

What I hope my girls learn is this, that beauty backed by substance is the very best kind.

PDAs #10 and 11: Sous Jeff and Pine Dining

BAD PUN ALERT!! Or, apology. Sous Jeff, sous chef -- get it?

I've gotten terribly off track again with my weekly Public Displays of Appreciation posts, probably because I haven't posted much of anything lately.

Here's a new one and one from April, thrown together in the same post because of food.

Pine Dining

Look what Jeff built Saturday! We've been missing a patio table ever since last September when I listed our glass table with four cushioned chairs as freebies online. One of our relatives is big on the "vacuum principle," that if you want something new in your life, it will fall into place if you first clear out the old. His stories of same-day acquisitions are pretty convincing -- and I wanted something that would fit our family and space better. (Never mind that a woman with her own family of seven picked it up.) I figured I'd stumble on the perfect table at the next garage sale. No?

Jeff filled that void. He researched plans and tweaked one to make it longer, bought the lumber Saturday morning and set to work. Samuel pulled out his toys and helped. As soon as the table was done giddy Samuel brought out an apple, announced to all he was having a picnic, and sat down.

Photo 2: Jeff accused me of "getting all artsy" with this shot.

Photo 3: See? Here I am on the other side. Thanks, James, for the photographic proof I helped. And thanks for not taking pictures of my scribbled calculations when Jeff consulted me about figuring out the angle and length for a cross brace. We gave up, then altered the plan for a simple 45.

Photo 4: Here's the finished product and Elise's castle from scraps. Thank you, Jeff, for your hard work. The kids and I love it! We've eaten every meal there since.

Sous Jeff

My aunt recently had brain surgery to remove a tumor, and I am glad to say she is doing well. In the scary period between doctor's discovery and plan for attack, I felt very inadequate in what I could do to help her. She lives about an hour away.

Then one day I decided I would make her freezer meals. I knew I would see her the following Sunday at a family gathering, so wanted to get them to her by then (her surgery was not yet set). Trouble was, I did not budget my time very well. That Saturday I was frantically finishing (OK, starting) a baby gift to present the next day, as well as practicing the organ and finishing my Primary preparations. Jeff made minestrone and a zucchini-based lasagna for my aunt.

Jeff, that was the end of April, but I haven't forgotten the way you picked up my slack. I know it aggravates you sometimes when my ambition exceeds my ability, and you have to make up the difference. Thank you for loving me anyway.

Cocoons

I was typing an email to a junior high teacher Friday afternoon, hoping to tie loose ends on the very last day of school, when James came shouting and running through the patio door. 

"Mom! Remember that caterpillar? It changed! MOM!!" He tugged my sleeve in urgency. "Come see!"

Hoo-boy. Just that morning I found a striking, piano keyboard-patterned moth while I was weeding. It was so sleepy I was able to go inside, hunt for a canning jar, return and scoop it back up without a flutter. (An adolescent, perhaps?) I hoped the kids would think it was cool.

James obviously did, given the determined way he pulled me from the computer. But I knew, by his mention of the word caterpillar, that he was thinking of the little wriggler he found two weeks ago and optimistically put in a pickle jar habitat on the patio.

My heart sank.

The hurried march with James from the computer desk to the patio was one of those drawn-out, time-defying debates in my head. Should I correct his misconception? Would he be disappointed? Would I squash the magic? Could this be as damaging to his psyche as Santa Claus gone wrong? Wait, how do I know? Maybe that other caterpillar, you know, the one on the patio for two weeks, maybe it did spin a cocoon unnoticed, and maybe it did hatch the very day I found the other moth. Whoa. Could it be?

No such luck. Two jars. One moth. 

Maybe I ultimately hoped James would think I was such a cool mom to catch the moth, and we all need Cool Mom recognition, right?  So I divulged. 

I'm not sure I made the right call.

"Oh," he said. That was all. And he was off to find sticks.

But I do know that the beautiful moth will forever be a memory of this last day of school, a very fitting symbol of my children's growth this year. That, coupled with the class autograph shirt James wore home Friday, makes me think about the kinds of cocoons I want to spin this summer:

'

James has wrapped himself in a strong sense of self-worth that I love to see him possess, even as I jealously desire it myself. I never want to see this leave! It's so hard otherwise, so hard to get back. I want to help all of my children emerge this season stronger in their belief of worth, and I know, to be effective, that I need to have a firmer conviction of my own. That is my goal, with prayer as my guide.

Here's to a summer of transformation!

First and last days of school -- August 2010 and June 2011.

By the way, if any of you noticed from the top photo, Elise got quite the shiner bumping heads at recess. Here's another look. The accident was Tuesday, and this photo is from Friday: