Slacking Through Saturday

Last night we went to see our school’s talent show even though M wasn’t feeling great. Her teacher and some others were doing a Special Surprise Act and she really, really wanted to go. By the end of two and a half solid hours of elementary-school talent, poor M looked like she was ready to collapse, and I’d confirmed that, yes, this had been a bad idea and all-around poor Mommy judgment. The bright spot was that J decided that she wants to play piano for the next talent show.

In any case, today we decided to slack off, big time. We skipped out on ice skating and stayed home all day.

At some point, J decided that she wanted to do some sewing. I actually used to teach kids to embroider back when I was a museum educator, and they always loved it–boys and girls. It’s a very satisfying activity, and I started taking photos and thinking of the tips I’d share for teaching kids how to embroider. But then the activity pretty much flopped this time. Come to think of it, at the museum I was usually teaching 4th or 5th graders.

J just likes to sew whatever, free-form.

This morning it was a flower. Actually, she did about half of this flower before losing interest and asking me to finish it.

M was interested in learning specific stitches, but when I tried, I’d forgotten how to do pretty much everything. I was trying to remember that very simple daisy chain, and next thing you know I was Googling directions.  This site was helpful. Speaking of helpful embroidery stuff, I’ve always meant to  acquire this super-awesome Stitch Sampler book. Anyway, by the time I remembered how to make a little flower, M was pretty much over any enthusiasm, and she ended up quitting after two petals. Oh, well.

But it was warm outside! Yay! I raked the old leaves out of our perennial garden until I ran out of cans. M brought me to a corner of the yard to show me some  beautiful purple flowers, and I oohed and aahhed. Then twenty minutes later J did the same thing, and I oohed and aahhed again while carefully avoiding mention of whether or not I’d noticed them before.  Of course M foiled me by telling J that she’d already shown me the flowers. Then J sulked and reproached me for acting pleased even though I’d already seen them before. Um, hello? I’m still pleased! It will take me at least a week before I’ll be able to greet the sight of flowers with anything less than supreme joy. And I had to point out that she’d been the first to identify the yellow ones, and it was only fair that. . . blah, blah, blah. Oh, it’s an enormous amount of drama sometimes.

In addition to mucking about in the garden, I finally added some pictures to the Capital District Fun Facebook page. In fact, if there are any favorites I missed, I’m taking requests.

Oh, and I caught up on my Google Reader, so I found an item that might be helpful. Alice Bradley and Eden Kennedy, authors of Let’s Panic About Babies, have this helpful advice about sex during pregnancy.

 

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