homeschooling, day one

Or sort of. I told Briton that we wouldn't officially start "school" until August, but in reality I'm planning to squeeze things in all summer. Because, after all, we only have a year here, got to take advantage of everything we can.
In the weeks before our move, I did as much research as I could squeeze in (between the packing and the Lyme, it wasn't really as much as I wanted to do, but it's a start) on homeschool in New York. At first everything I came across was about homeschooling laws which is something I'm going to have to tackle soon - New York is fairly strict when it comes to regulating homeschooling - but for now I can't wrap my head around that end. After some more digging I came across the New York City Home Educators Association. In addition to the message boards and announcements about events in the city and group meetings, they also hold a monthly get=together for big group events, Art Shows, Science Fairs etc. This month it was Field Day.
Although I'm quite a social person and my kids are both social butterflies, we all have a hard time diving into a crowd of strangers and making friends and I almost let that side get the better of me this morning and passed up the whole Field Day thing. And also, I hate field day. I hated it as a kid and I'm not a big fan now. A combination of my dislike for hot weather (which it always is on Field Day) and my decidedly un-sports coordination always made it a day to dread. But in the end we went and I'm so glad because, as I said yesterday, we need friends, immediately.
Now perhaps this was a fluke. Maybe it was the day or it's just this city or it was purely the hours that we were there, but man, there are a LOT of 8-10 year old boys being homeschooled. We walked in to find the soccer field (on a pier! How cool is that?) filled with sweaty, active boys all Briton's age. And while he resisted all my attempts to hook him up with a boy who was at the playgarden last night he jumped right in with the game and pretty much didn't talk to me the rest of the afternoon. As for Evelyn, well, she met a girl in a pink shirt and had her face painted to be a pink kitty. So she was set too.
I'm not crazy enough to think that all our homeschool days will be fun and easy like today. Does Field Day really even count as school? Probably not. Over the next few weeks I'm hoping to sit down and plan out a more structured (but not too structured) curriculum for our year and I'm well aware that there will be many, many challenging days. But for now it's nice to know that day one was a success.

hello from the city

Looking back at my last post, I can hardly believe that only a week has passed. As is typical for a move, the last few days have seemed like months with all the packing, loading, unloading (ok, I didn't have to do any of that. Thank you Steve and Will!) and unpacking not to mention all of the upheaval and confusion that comes from being in a totally new place. I could probably write pages and pages on the past two days, our first in the city, but I'll just hit you with the highlights...

The Good:

Will was a trooper and, along with his buddy Steve, unloaded all the furniture and unpacked about 3/4 of the boxes so when the kids and I arrived our apartment looked somewhat homelike. We are now almost all the way unpacked. I won't say organized because we are no where near that, but the boxes are pretty much all gone.

The apartment is bigger than expected. I think. Or maybe it's about what I expected. There are some really weird things about it that I'll chat about later but for the most part we brought just the right amount of stuff. Only one thing is being kicked to the curb and that was something we brought just in case it would fit, which it didn't, but it's no great loss.
Our neighborhood is lovely. Really, really lovely. With a teeny little "playgarden" right next to our building, two huge parks a five minute walk away (not counting Central Park which is about 7 minutes away) a small pocket garden around the corner and the beautiful grounds of St. John the Divine across the street, we really couldn't ask for a better spot in the city to call home. Also, at the end of our street - the public library and a Bubble Tea place. Man, Bubble Tea. Who knew? I'm addicted.

The kids are pretty happy. They are enjoying the neighborhood and the city and don't seem freaked out at all. But we do need to find some friends. Stat.

Will picked us up from the train in a town car. Very Mr. Big of him.


The Bad:

No dishwasher. Ugg. I know, I know, lots of people don't have a dishwasher. But you see, I've lived most of my married life without one and having one for the past four years has been, well. really wonderful. So I'm just ignoring the ever growing pile of dishes for now.

While the walls of the apartment are freshly painted, they are painted in a horrible yellowy beige color that makes us all look a little sick. I hate it. Will hates it. I think the cat even hates it. We can paint and I have a feeling that, once we are really settled, at least the living room will get a fresh coat. Because, yuck.
Our "First Day in New York" plans turned out to be a little too adventurous and we ended up walking way further than planned in the mid day heat. Thank goodness for a stroller and a rock star eight year old. It could have been much worse.

We seemed to have lost a box. And not just any box. The box with all my YARN in it!! Other than the project that I was working on on the train, everything is missing which is a little irritating. We're guessing that it got placed in the storage unit by accident. I hope so because it also had some small treasures tucked into the yarn for cushioning and my heart is breaking a little at the thought of all those memories (and all those stitches) lost. But on the up side, I now have a good excuse to order some yarn from here that I've been dying to try.

The unusual:

So far we have run across -

A man on the subway carrying a purse. Not a man bag. A purse. And very comfortable he looked with it too.

Another man with blue sparkly toenails. His girlfriend did not have painted toes, however. Maybe they ran out of polish after he did his.
A full mariachi band with instruments, hats and chaps playing in the subway car between stations.

A guy sitting in the park sipping tea and wearing a big black cape. Kinda hot for a cape. But whatever.


The wonderful:
Last night we went for an evening walk and couldn't help but notice a huge line wrapping around the block outside St. John the Divine. As it turned out, the New York Philharmonic was playing a free concert there. Not wanting to subject the patient crowd to two tired kids we wandered into the garden behind the church and found that they were piping the music outside as well. A few minutes later we were having a picnic (of Capri Sun, Pringle's and some interesting fried cheese pie things - it's what they had at the nearest shop) and listening to music while Evelyn treated us, and everyone else, to a spontaneous (and kind of hilarious) "ballet". The perfect end to our first day.

paring down and signing off (for a bit)

So this is where we are. Everything that's coming with us, with the exception of the mattresses and the couch and some odds and ends, all stacked and ready to go in the dining room. Pared down to as little as possible. Everything else is either in our very small but very tightly packed storage unit or has been sold or given away (Or is sitting in the living room waiting to be sold or given away)
Will thinks it looks like too little, I think it looks like too much but either way I guess we can deal with that when we get there, buying or finding more or chucking out to have less.

Yesterday we drove up to Washington DC to escape the packing and pick out the much coveted bunk beds plus a table for the office and some shelves for all those books that are stacked in boxes in our heap. While we were there we wandered though one of their sample apartments. You know the kind, where they set up a space with everything you need right down to the toilet paper (and all available to buy, of course). At 600 square feet, it should be about the same size as our apartment in the city. And while it seemed surprisingly spacious I cant help but wonder if that's more the magic of IKEA (short beds in the kids room, impossibly small shower) than it actually being spacious. So I'm kind of wondering just how it will feel once our books and tables and couches and chairs are in it. I guess, at this point, there's nothing to do but wait and see.
And we wont be waiting long. The house, fingers crossed that nothing stands in the way, closes on Friday, and by the time the papers are signed by everyone, Will will be picking up the keys to our new apartment and unloading our things. The kids and I head up Sunday on train. It's hard to believe that a week from now we will be New Yorkers. And carless. Actually, I'm so happy to be carless. Have you seen the price of gas? Sheesh!

New Yorkers.

Humm, that's going to take some getting used to.

I'm signing off for a week so that I can get all those last minute, call the internet company, withdraw the kids from school, pack the moving truck kind of details taken care of. See ya on the other side!

a good friday

I woke up this morning to find that we were out of both milk and coffee. Not a good way to start the day.(Someone was supposed to go get them last night before he went to bed but instead sang kareoke with his buddy until waaay too late) But then, a little grumpy and groggy, I went outside into the quiet cool morning to go get coffee and milk and saw this
and decided that it was a good start to the day after all.

Have a lovely Friday everyone!

peace in the animal kingdom

When I was, oh, probably not a lot older than Evie, someone gave me a copy of the book A Visit to William Blake's Inn. I loved it. I love it still. In fact, I'd show you a picture of my much cherished (and battered) copy, except it's in the box of must-go-to-New-York kids books. Along with everything Mo Williams ever wrote, because, hello? Pigeons! But back to Mr. Blake.
William Blake's Inn is the first book I remember falling into. My parents must have read it to me a thousand times. A million times. The art was dreamy but realistic and the poems spoke to me. Which is kind of amazing because I've never been much of a poetry person. If you will recall, the first poem I learned by heart was a favorite of my dad's.
When I was a little older, maybe eight or nine, my dad took me to an auction and I was thrilled to see that, amongst the china and silver, there was an old set of William Blake's Poems. I desperately wanted them. When I had a chance to look at them, however, I found that the only poem I recognized was The Tiger. My dad explained that the book I loved was mostly poems in the style of William Blake, rather than by William Blake. It was a little devastating. The set of books ended up being too expensive and so we went home without them, and I went back to my beloved fake Blake.

The poems in the book are beautiful, captivating, but I think it was the illustrations that really won me over as a kid. Lions and rabbits and cats and cows, and of course the Tiger. Because you can't have William Blake without a tiger. They walk together and curl up together to sleep, peaceful and happy. Growing up I happened to have a dog and cat like that. They snuggled in a heap in front of the wood stove and followed each other around. I thought that's how pets were supposed to be.
Since then, I have not had pets like that. They love me and I love them but they do not love each other. At all. Actually, I sometimes think that our dog, Nigella, does love our cat, Ella, she just loves her so much that she wants to eat the cats tail. Or maybe the cat just looks like an interesting snack. Ella is clearly not a fan of the dog, in the "I will never be in the same room as that thing" kind of way.

Until recently. I'm not sure if it's me spending a lot of time in bed or the boxes everywhere that have them on their best behavior, but my animals are being really, oddly, strangely nice to each other. Yesterday the dog was chowing down on her food and the cat walked over and sat down a few inches away. (This is very unusual, see the I won't be in the same room comment above) Weirder still, the dog stopped eating and the cat started eating. The dogs food. That's strange, right?

Then there is the bed thing. Nigella has recently started sleeping in our bed. Will isn't a big fan of this but since she hops up after we are asleep, it's kind of hard to stop it. Plus, I like it. She keeps my toes warm. But these days I've been waking up every morning to this.
So I guess, at least temporarily, there is peace in the animal kingdom of our house. And given the fact that everything else around here is in chaos, I'll take every little bit of peace I can.

Are your pets friends or foes?

couch potato fun

When I woke up yesterday morning I could not get myself out of bed. Much to my dismay, the headache and soreness of a few weeks ago was back and there way no way I was going to get up for the normal morning routine.
Poor Will. On top of the whole moving thing and the whole work thing, he's had this lame-o sick wife for the past few weeks who has been pretty useless a lot of the time. And he's taken it like a champ. Making dinner, cleaning the house, packing, dealing with kids. Totally without complaint. He deserves a medal. He really does. I don't think I'd be that patient with me. And when I tapped him on the shoulder all achy and wimpy he told me to go back to sleep and did the whole dressed/breakfast/lunch packed/on the bus thing on his own. My hero. Seriously.

Throughout the morning, while it rained (really, really loudly) outside and with the house all to myself, I had hoped to get a huge amount of packing done. But alas, I spent most of it laying on the bed or the couch or one of the kids beds staring at the boxes. Too freaking tired and feverish to do much else. And when Will brought Evie home from school at lunch and then had to go back to work, I was a little worried about what the afternoon would bring. Most of they toys are packed. All of the art supplies are boxed up and ready to go, as are the movies. Even if I had the energy to sit outside it was still raining crazy buckets. Our choices were looking pretty much like Netflix or Nextflix. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Netflix. But there is only so much Care Bears/ Strawberry Shortcake/ Rainbow Brite I can take.

Which is why I'd like to thank the recycling gods who came earlier than usual Monday morning, before I could take the huge pile of old Highlights magazines that I'd found while packing the living room over the weekend. Because boys howdy were they a life saver.
Remember Highlights? Well, it's still awesome. And it's are also not just Highlights anymore. We get an embarrassing array of Highlight magazines. It started when my grandmother gave the kids each a subscription for their birthdays a few years ago. Good old Highlights for Briton and High Five, the preschooler version, for Evie. The LOVED them. And then the "special offers" started coming. I'm not usually a sucker for special offers, especially when it comes to magazines. I have only had one magazine subscription in my life that wasn't a gift (Domino. Oh how I miss you. How I hate that my five year subscription got transferred to Glamour for some horrible reason. Do I look like someone who would subscribe to Glamour? NO, no I don't - no offense to Glamour subscribers, I wish I was fashionable like you, I'm just, not) But since my kids loved the originals, well, I decided to try one. And they loved that. So we got another (few). Currently we get Highlights, High Five, Mathmania, Hidden Playground and Puzzle Buzz with a few Puzzlemanias thrown in now and then.

We read them and do the puzzles and stick the stickers every month. But sometimes they all seem to arrive on the same day and I pile them up in a basket in our coffee table on slip them into one of the magazine file boxes in the mudroom. When I started clearing them out I realized we had A LOT of them.
Yesterday afternoon, Evie and I sat on the couch and found missed games and stickers, cut out a mini city and taped them onto moving boxes, made snowflakes and had a remarkably fun time given the fact that I kept dozing off. And we watched Care Bears too.

Needless to say, mama is back on gigantibiodics (Yay! Not!) And the pile o Highlights is staying put until the moving truck pulls away. And even then, they may go with us on the train. Because they are awesome. Just sayin.

How did you keep busy during this rainy, nasty week? Anything fun?

boxes, boxes EVERYWHERE

When we first bought this house we face many many challenges. Almost every single thing in it needed to be replaced, revamped, refinished or redone and over the past two years we've gotten, really, most of that taken care of. And we're pretty happy with the result. But one of the greatest challenges that this little house had was that it was so darn little. Coming in right around 1200 square feet (up 100 since we finished the mudroom) it's not a lot of house for two growing kids, tow active pets and two work at home, collect lots of things, always adding to the heap parents. As a result we've spent a lot of time and effort on storage. There are built-ins in almost every room. Shelves are built in (here, and here, and here), desks are built in, Dressers are parts of beds or shelves, things are tucked away and reconfigured and changed so that everything can have a place. It's one of my favorite things about this house.
The irony is, of course, that we have no storage to take with us. All of the bookshelves that we had before we moved in have been re-purposed into something or other in this house and cant be detached or moved. All the new shelving has been built in. So we have NADA. I have lots of bins and boxes that fit perfectly on shelves or under desks to keep us organized, but I have no shelves or desks to put them on or under. Which is a problem.

Because we haven't actually seen the space we will be living in, we can't really say what we will need, so packing and planning has been a bit of a crap shoot. We will be picking up some of the IKEA bookshelves that we used to create the built ins in the living room, because we know we will use them, for this next year and beyond. But other than that, well, I guess we will have to wait and see.

When we first started packing, the pre-putting-the-house-on-the-market packing, I had decided not to bring my books. I know most people don't obsessibly keep every book they have ever owned (I havent' really kept every book. I sometimes sell books, but that's only so I can buy more books, so it probably doesn't count) but I love my books. LOVE THEM. And this is the first time I've had room for (almost) all of them to be out. It's been wonderful. But I was willing to pack them all away (well, most of them, there were a few boxes that HAD to go) for the year. And then Will and I started looking at pictures from Apartment Therapy's Small Cool Contest for inspiration on relaly small space living and we both realized that all of the images we liked had one thing in common. Books. Lots and lots of books. So we decided that we would bring the books. Not all of them. But a lot of them. Most of them. (Yay!) Also, we found out that our apartment has an elevator. (But no AC. I'm going to die)

Where we will put them, well, that's obviously still up in the air. But now that we are packing in earnest (t minus ten days till moving truck arrives adn counting) I am much happier to be putting the books in boxes labeled "New York" rather than "Storage".

Even still. I hate packing.

It IS NOT my favorite or my best.

Back to the boxes....