Kleenex..um...Art?

A new trend at our home among the younger set- when one is angry or frustrated or maybe having really bad cramps....use Kleenex to make your feelings known.

After a bad baseball game, or really bad cramps....this is the scenery we find.  Sometimes the younger set asks permission to use Kleenex as a form of self-expression.  Other times it just appears.  In any event, the older set approves of this method of self-expression as opposed to ....well, other methods that might be more destructive or loud.  This is effective but quiet.

And now, the photo you've all been waiting for...

Thank goodness for the volume discounts on Kleenex at Costco!

Summer Wind-Up Winds Down

This has been a wind-down week for our summer sports.  Sisi had her final swim meet of the summer, and her best one yet.  She completed all her events without any goggle malfunctions and improved her 50 yard backstroke time by 5 seconds!  Her relay team for the 200 free style came in only 1 second too slow to qualify for the regional meet.  She was smiling "very bigly" as we left the Shirk Center last Sunday.  And on Wednesday she got 2 fifth place ribbons for her backstroke and breast stroke races.  She was very proud.

And she said the secret to keeping your goggles on in a race is to make them so tight that you feel like it's making you nearsighted.

J'dude's baseball season ended Thursday night with a difficult loss, 3-2, in game 3 of the playoffs.  He pitched a perfect 6th inning, but the damage had been done in the inning before.  It was a hard loss for him.  I think it might have been easier if it had been a big blow-out.  Seemed to make it worse that they could have beat this team on another day.

There's always next year.  And he had a great year, both with excellent pitching and his hitting really improved this year too.  In a day or two the dust will settle and he'll remember that.  

We watched a fascinating documentary last night on Netflix...The Battered Bastards of Baseball.  Bing Russell, known for his role as the sheriff on Bonanza, and also as Kurt Russell's father, started an independent minor league baseball team in Portland in the 70's.  The team was unconventional in a number of ways, and in spite of not having any major-league affiliation, came close to winning the A-level championship a few years.  It's worth a watch!

Dinner for the Modern Family, a Play in Three Acts

First, J'dude and Ironing Man must leave for hair appointments with the fabulous Aubrey.  (We all go to Aubrey, except for Sisi who goes to...a pair of scissors in her room when the tangles get unmanageable.)

So, while they are with the Fab-Aub, I make Sisi some spaghetti and pesto, so she can carb-load before swim practice.

I drop her off at the pool, then head downtown Bloomington to pick up J'dude who is "starving" and so I make his spaghetti and he eats it with Ragu Extra Chunky Mushroom red sauce, cold, and about 3 cups of parmesan cheese per ounce of pasta.

He heads out to cut the grass since he is no longer starving.

Ironing Man swings by the pool to pick up Sisi after his fabulous hair appointment (I received text that he now looks Suave and Deboner) and she finishes practice.  I'm home, boiling more water, and making more spaghetti noodles, and cooking hamburger to put in our Bertolli red sauce with garlic/olive oil/basil.

...the end

Epilogue...speaking of fabulous hair - I'm trying to go through the process of growing out my color and going back to nature, which these days is so White You'd Think It was An Add for Clorox.  So here's my plan...I'm going as a skunk for Halloween.

If I can't stand it, I'll just have to go as a witch!

Swimmin' and Swingin' Through Summer

It seems like this summer is being spent behind the wheel of a car, behind the baseball diamond backstop, and up in the balcony of IWU's natatorium.  Sisi swims---teaching kids in the mornings at Fairview Pool, hanging out with friends at the same pool in the afternoons during summer camp, and twice a week at IWU where she practices with her swim team, The Funky Fish.  So named for their coach, Coach Fish.   J'dude practices or plays 2-3 times a week, and pitches at least an inning or 2 most games.  Last Friday he pitched 4 innings.  And I have to say that if he could have pitched all six innings of the game they would have beat that pesky team that they have lost to twice.  But at his tender age, 5 innings is the limit and his coach knows that 4 is better for him.   And so it goes.

Today, though, we had no swim practice or games in the evening.  I finished working this afternoon, came home and took a lovely nap.  So perhaps I should have titled this Swimmin', Swingin', and SNORIN' Through Summer.  And after my nap I ate dinner, prepared by Ironing Man.  Then J'dude and I did the dishes.  Now everyone is reading, or at least quietly pretending to do so.  I love these serene evenings at home, even as much as I love watching the little people do what they love.

It Was Just One of Those Days

Swim meet in Springfield.  Event 1, 50 yard freestyle.  Sisi dives in off the block, all goes well, she does not swim her best time but she feels content about her swim.  Event 2, 100 yard breast stroke.  This is the stroke she has practiced most in the week before the meet.  We even got up early on Friday and went to the pool at 630 so she could work on it some more.  What we didn't anticipate was a goggle malfunction.

The goggles slipped off and down around her neck, essentially making her feel like she was choking.  There may have been some water-swallowing along the way.  She had to walk to the end of the lane and climb out, gasping a bit.  Coach Tommie did a great job of calming her down, reassuring her that her whole first year of swim meets might have snafus as she learns, and that stuff like that "happens to absolutely everyone."

Event 3 was at least an hour and a half later.  That's a long time to walk around and let worry build in your brain.  So that when she got in the water for her 100 yard backstroke, she was scared poop-less about choking again.  After the event (which she did finish) she was crying in the locker room because she was afraid she'd always have that feeling every time she got in a pool.

About halfway home from Springfield, after a short pep talk from her mom and 15 minutes of distracting video games, she announced in a cheerful voice "ok, that's over"  and then she asked her big brother for advice.

J'dude said when he messes up in a baseball game (which he would hardly admit EVER happens, well okay he strikes out a lot), he remembers there will be lots of other chances.  And, he added, it's just little league (not, for example, the 7th game of the World Series when the Cubs finally have a chance to win it all -- example provided by his mom, of course)

As it turns out, we drove straight from the meet to one of his games.  He pitched well, but struck out a lot.  And they lost.

Likewise for California Chrome, who I must say looked like he enjoyed running WITH the other horses instead of ahead of them.  

At the end of the day, all I can say is that we had a beautiful rain, then the stars came out last night brighter than I have seen them in years, and ....CUBS WIN, CUBS WIN!!

'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky

Right, it's from Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze.  (I hope.)  Because I'm on a Color Roll now and the color of the day is purple.

But first a slight glance backward at the past 2 days of black and blue. (Don't worry, not that kind of black and blue.)

Tuesday evening we attended Sisi's 5th grade orchestra concert.  She's there in the front row wearing a black suit and a blue bandana.  And looking quite musically inclined, because she is!

Wednesday the little maestra turned 12.  She asked for a pound cake with no frosting, and she wanted it to be blue. Of course.  We compromised on a pound cake with blue swirls and part of it unfrosted.  The breaking of the cake into 3 pieces was my idea.  Ok, it was an accident for which I take full credit.

My other great idea was to invite 3 of her friends from school to walk home with her and have cake, but not to tell her they were going to do that.  Somehow she didn't not figure out that they were actually coming to the house with her until they all got here, and even then she was surprised.  Happy Birthday Sisi!

Today it's a purple haze in the backyard.  Lilacs

Hint of purple on the rhubarb stalks

Phlox!

This little guy isn't purple, but he looked so cute I added him to the mix.  (Not my creation, found on plant trellis at a garage sale!)

Now if we have some Purple Rain the garden will look great!  

Parkland Bluebells

The Player and I went to Parklands for a short hike yesterday afternoon because it was a beautiful spring day, because it was my last Monday off work (going to a 5-day per week schedule next week) and because we heard that "the bluebells are out at Parklands."  We heard that information on good authority from a fellow at church who hikes there a lot.

So the first half mile or so on the hike we saw

trillium

violets

forget me nots

periwinkle

and finally just a few meager bluebells

but then, o then, o my, we headed down close to the Mackinaw and were transported into Bluebell Acres:

Carl Sagan would have said there were Billyuns and Billyuns of Bluebells!