staying home is super-good

last night i was not sleepy. tired yes, but sleepy no. some work stress has been nagging at me and the anthology is slow moving. i was up very late. and this morning, ruskin left without remembering that R had music class. he woke me several times but i was out cold. so the kids and i woke 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave. well you can imagine that this was not popular. R is so sincere and tries so hard. K is just peppy and ready to go. Despite the stress of making it out the door, we got to music class on time. R and K had soy sausages and blueberry muffin in the car. i did not get my dose of caffeine, but there was nothing to be done about it. we arrived in the nick of time. k and i wandered around the school and outside. she was curious and cautious. we drank from 3 different water fountains and she asked several times about her brother with concern. what a considerate sister. R mentioned that earlier this morning as well. when he helped her with her shoes, i said you are a kind and caring brother. he said that K was a kind sister too.

R had a good class and was quite happy. his music therapist had lavish praise about him and really said that he was a sensitive and caring boy. we agree! she said he was empathetic and showed concern about others as well as advocated for himself. i am happy to hear that. while the class was not the best fit, he really enjoyed it and was asking kathy about when the next class is. he was quite vocal about wanting to do it again next summer.

the next destination was the library which was closed. so that put a kink in our plans. we tried another branch and that too was closed. so we stopped by a grocery store for snacks and then went to the dollar store to prepare for the upcoming bday party. pinata stuffings were acquired and we finally made it to the library. by then it was noon and we were hot and hungry. but the east lake library was a nice cool treat. it is rarely packed and has a nice but contained children's section. many books were selected along with a sequel to alphabet rescue and a sequel to scrambled states of america. the latter is highly recommended.

more snacking occurred on the way home. Ruskin called as we were in the parking lot but it was not possible to talk while minding two children in the heat in a high traffic area. thus our conversation was deferred. naps were a little hard to come by. R rested peacefully in his bed, but K was all riled up and climbing all over me and trying to read. finally, she fell asleep. R and i worked on putting away his books in his new bookshelves on his bed. eventually he woke K up. i almost got her back to sleep but it was quite farcical as R popped in every few minutes to check to see if i was done and woke her up again. after about 20 minutes, i gave up and we all joined R in his room. mostly the kids cooperated and R was excited about working on getting his room ready.

we went downstairs on the late side and i unpacked all the farm veggies to try to get a farm fresh meal on the table. we had a nice dinner of sauteed chard and zucchini, fresh salsa, corn on the cob, soy chicken nuggets, and cucumbers. the kids had spanokopita and enchilada. k also had about 2 out of our 3 ears of corn -- just like her dad would have done. during dinner, ruskin came home and ate. then the kids had a nice long time to play. k and i read grandma joyce's present -- a new thomas book. and R looked at grandma joyce's really cool present of aquasaurs (tadpole shrimp). we decided not to try them out yet as we are going out of town next week and we do not want to have to have masee come feed our crustacea. so we will wait until we return. we also opened nani and nana's other bday present of Knex blocks. a good time was had by all.

bed time was smooth. R had had no nap so he fell asleep around 9:30. if only every night was like that! k was out by 9 or 9:15. it is early and things are quiet. i have a headache as predicted. but it was a good day. or super-good as my son says. we had a few rough spots but the kids were great and eager. i could have used about 15 minutes of quiet and some more caffeine. but all in all everyone enjoyed themselves.