Notes from an anthropological dig

I changed my mind on this post. Does that ever happen to you?

It happens a lot to wishy-washy people like me.

Sorry.

A Post post

postboxes from Flickr group, via Ministry of Type

1.

I'm reading Roald Dahl's biography Boy aloud to the kids and found it endearing that he wrote to his mother every week for 32 years, from the first week (at age 9!) when he was sent to boarding school until her death. She kept all of those letters (more than 600 altogether) in piles bound with green tape in the original envelopes. It makes me long for old fashioned mail. What will we do without lovely piles of letters to read through? Will our emails survive?

Resolved: I'm going to send more real mail.

2.

If you have younger kids, you might like this pretty wonderful card table post office. Also check out the felt mail and mail bags. I wish my kids still wanted to make believe. Or, for the grown-up version, how about this fantastic 1880 post office wall?

As a compromise, I'm acting on an idea I saw ages ago: putting mailboxes inside the house (maybe one per person near their bedroom?) for leaving notes and papers. Or maybe one or two of these great Swedish mailboxes would do the trick. Let the secret admirer/complaint department/compliments/wish making begin!

3.

Finally, I cannot look at the sight of those glorious red postboxes without a surge of affection for G. When I was in London for six months and he was here in the US of A he was a devoted pen pal. He called, wrote or recorded something for me on tape Every Single Day. I wasn't quite as good about the frequency of return post but those red boxes temporarily held many of my dearest thoughts and fragilest hopes, on their way to him.

I wonder if they're selling one of those on eBay? {Hmm. Just found this.}

Summer launch

One of the advantages of getting out of school later than most of the rest of the country is I had time to peruse all of the summer ideas that other families were doing. I loved Jenny's (private blog) take on being productive in the mornings and leaving the afternoons for fun. I remember visiting Christie last summer and loving how her kids earn books each week (I think she has a bin full of new books she snagged at a book fair...right, C?).

We usually like to have some kind of structure (although flexible). I wanted to be able to set aside mornings to get work done on some research and writing I've commited to this summer and, at the same time, give some guidelines for the kids to get a few things done every day relatively unsupervised (and by unsupervised I mean un-nagged). I also wanted to provide some fun ideas to stave off the blahs and the floppies (as in, flopping on the couch, flopping on the floor, and whining). So this is what we've come up with.

Summer Bingo! Stacy described her Summer Bingo idea here and I was hooked (she even includes downloadable bingo forms and rules, which I adapted for my kids' ages and interests). After the kids do their beds, pick up their clothes, do a job and practicing, they can do activities on the Bingo sheet. Some are really fun, some are enriching or educational, some will help move the kids forward on goals (scouts, personal progress). They can earn tickets toward prizes every time they get "bingo" and, if they do the whole thing each week, some $ will be put toward their school clothes or something they're saving for. The best part is that it's self guided and it motivates them to get the essentials (work and practicing) done quickly.

click to enlarge^

Maddy and her best friend, Meg, have been helping as junior counselors for the Vacation Bible School here in town in the mornings. They got home and decided to do the "make something in the kitchen" option. {Mmm. Chocolate chip cookies...keep them away from me, please.}

Sam elected to do the most decadent item on the sheet first: one hour of video games. Figures!

Lauren is babysitting for a neighborhood family all week so she has yet to dive into the world of Summer Bingo.

For the afternoons, we've put together a list of activities and field trips we'd like to do together as often as we can. Our days will be just like a mullet: business up front, party in the back.

What are you doing this summer to stay occupied and sane?

Everyday life--weekend (and last) edition

Promise. 

Last installation of everyday photos from my week-in-our-life photo project. 

Brrrr. It was cold around here.  The good news, the silver lining? 

Fireplace fire time.  Mmmm...cozy.

Clockwise from top left:  1.we hosted all the youth from church (I'm the new Young Women's president) to come watch General Conference on our makeshift "big screen" (=white sheet and a borrowed projector) for the traditional "pizza conference" Saturday morning session.  2. the chess board came out for a duel to the deathmatch between the two boys of the family.  3.  Maddy in her football-game-watching get-up on Friday night.  Note the earrings crafted from black-and-white striped paper clips.  4. I love me a good fire  5.  sausage, eggs, and the New York Times on Sunday morning  6. Greg and son, battling it out chess-style (Sam won)

Everyday life: Tuesday/Wednesday edition

I'm enjoying the chance to look around and capture everyday moments this week.  Even if it's boring for everyone else, it will be nice to have it recorded for posterity :).  Clockwise from top left: Sam reading~ Louie enjoying his daily peanut butter treat~Young Women campfire last night~ toast and cocoa breakfast on a cold rainy morning~waiting for Sam outside of his piano lessons (with my ipod and library books)~stop sign I drive past every day~our neighborhood library~driving home from Cambridge~dinner prep: Lauren and Maddy setting table~and (center) the usual backpack and shoes drop-off spot (though this is just Sam's contribution so, imagine if you will, this times 3).

This week has kind of been a rollercoaster.  For you, too?  Even though I keep telling him not to, G keeps checking our 401K balance sheet and phones me from work with the grim updates. It makes me sad. And frustrated. Then my interview went great and they offered me the teaching job. So I will be teaching a human development class at Boston University next semester.  Wahoo!  Then I got an email the next morning that, due to the economy, BU has instituted a hiring freeze.  Boo. I'm waiting to see if that affects my plans. Que sera, sera, right? At the same time, we are really excited about a Christmas trip we are planning in lieu of giving each other presents.  I love looking forward to a trip.  We have already bought our tickets but the economy rollercoaster takes a little of shine off of the travel anticipation. Then, at the end of the day when everyone's home and we're all together and just reading on the couch or having dinner, I feel better.  We're healthy, we're relatively happy, we try hard. 

See what I mean? Roller coaster. 

So every time I go through the intersection right by our house, I see the stop sign in the picture above and smile.  Usually I'm not a big fan of graffiti but this one cheers me up.  What kind of graffitti-er paints encouraging messages?  An out-of-work Hallmark card writer?  A rogue life coach gone off the deep end? Don't stop believing (or b-levn), guys!