Tag: photos

Left (friday foto finder)

Okay, az, you’ve talked me into it. I’ll try my hand at joining in Archie‘s friday foto finder, a weekly photo-sharing activity.

This week’s theme is “Left.” This photo is one from a 2009 trip to San Francisco, a left-leaning city on the US Left Coast. Here we are on a left-leaning ramp, with left-pointing arrows.

hump day

Things have been crazy busy, mostly in a good way. There have been lots of year-end events for Phoebe’s school, and I found myself spending many hours last week cooking and baking for a couple of them. (My diet has such complicated restrictions that if I don’t bring food to such events, I will not be guaranteed to find anything that I can eat. Also, I am slightly insane.) Yesterday was the kindergarten field trip to the zoo. I went as a chaperone. For Phoebe’s class, there ended up being a high chaperone-to-kid ratio, but that turned out well. I had charge of Phoebe plus one other kid. It’s actually rather challenging to take charge of a 6-year-old you don’t really know at a public place full of lots of other small children you don’t know at all. I’m quite pleased to say that I did not lose any children. I am also pleased to say that I refrained from volunteering at one final school event, as I really need to spend some quality time with my work. In the 2+ weeks that I’ve been back from China, I have really only had a couple of days that have not been packed with meetings, childcare or other commitments. (I guess that may be why I’m rather tired today. On the bright side, I think I am squarely over my jetlag! This tiredness can be attributed to fatigue from overactivity.)

I have had so many things to share, a head full of thoughts and a hard drive full of photos. Sometimes, when there is too much, I have trouble posting much of anything at all. So this post is meant to help push me over that hump. (I thought about doing a Wordless Wednesday post, but who am I kidding? I like words.)

spring fever

Spring has definitely arrived here. Possibly with a vengeance.

I’m not generally prone to seasonal allergies, but there have been a few times in my life when I have wondered if I’ve been beset. This being one of them.

This week is Phoebe’s school vacation. On Tuesday morning, we had Phoebe’s annual check-up scheduled. (Almost 2 months after her birthday. We’d had to reschedule a couple of times.) I was going to take the kids to the dentist in the afternoon (way to vacation!), but the hygienist had to reschedule, so we had an unexpected free afternoon. It was a beautiful hot, sunny day, and I thought we should spend some time outside in the window between lunch and Phoebe’s karate class. A trip to the town playground was in order!

We got ourselves together and over to the park remarkably quickly, given my reduced ability to nag. (And I totally felt like a responsible adult when I remembered that we should wear sunscreen. I have to pat myself on the back for these rare moments.)

The kids had lots of fun. Phoebe dug up a worm and picked dandelions. Theo climbed and jumped off rocks.They slid on slides and swung on swings. Both kids ran around and interacted with other kids.

But I was zonked. I think we were there for a little more than an hour, but it felt like an eternity. I tried to occupy myself by taking some photos, something that can usually keep me quite content for long stretches of time, but I barely had the will to focus, what with all the coughing and the sneezing and the blowing of the nose. I fantasized about being at home, curled up on the couch, box of tissues at my side. Happily, Theo started to get overheated! Yes! I suggested we could go home and watch an episode of Scooby Doo. This was effective at luring Phoebe away from her enjoyment of the great outdoors as well.

So we went home to sit inside and watch some TV.¹

Brought to you by Great Moments in Parenting.

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¹ For the record, I did decline to give them bowls of candy and potato chips to munch on. And I hardly let them have any beer or crack.