Gorgeous Curls

Look at these CURLS! RINGLETS! Corkscrew, spiral, twirly, coils, waves! Aside from how amazing these curls are, they also feel very on brand for Isaac's crazy and chaotic personality. As though his personality is growing out of his head for all to see. However, he only tolerates them for so long before he begs Jason to give him a haircut. I admit that shorter hair is easier for swim lessons and his hats probably fit better, but I am still sad every time.

I felt fairly certain that no one at school was going to recognize him and I kept telling him he looked vaguely familiar to me, but he still is really cute. 

October on FB

Meditation on a Sunday morning: This is my circus, these are my monkeys, and a lack of planning on their part (often) constitutes an emergency on mine 

🤪🤪🤪🤪 

We have a shared use trail near our house for walkers, runner, rollerbladers, bicyclists, and....chickens?

Some of the trees in our neighborhood are having a season identity crisis

A great night!

Epic

I have discovered two cures for insomnia

1. Webinars on using secondary data in research

2. Books published by MIT Press

And if those don't work for you then at least you've learned something 😄

Shenanigans with Aunt Rachel 

I think the NYT made a mistake - neither S-A-T-A-N nor D-E-V-I-L fits in this spot 🤷‍♀️

Costumes

Halloween is still four days away, but this evening all three boys (I assume that Josh isn't participating this year) had the opportunity to dress up. 

A last minute trip to Goodwill brought this gem into our lives. Ben was getting ready to go to the football game and, well, I am not sure. I assume not watch the football game. Probably hang out with friends.

This most excellent Joker suit was also sitting on a hanger at Goodwill waiting for the right person to come claim (and pay for) it. Michael had plans for a haunted house with a friend.

And our resident Link has been lobbying for and working on his costume for a while. His mother may have caved and bought a costume (which is against the core of her being) on Amazon. This evening was his chance to wear the costume at school at the Fall Festival. 

Who knows what wacky adventures they will go on in the next few days!

Choir Concert for Two

 Michael has magic abilities. Yes, you read that right - I said "magic" not "music". I mean, he does have stunning music abilities, but he also has magic abilities. He does things I didn't think possible. While it was impressive that he got Ben to join cross-country, running is one of Ben's current skill sets after years of soccer. But when he got Ben to sign up for CHOIR, there was no precedent. 

Tonight was the first choir concert of the year. 

Unlike Michael, Ben does not sing around the house so all I could base my expectations on was his reports of comments made by the choir director. Turns out he has a really nice voice and was even tapped to perform in a trio. 

Also, he totally rocked the choir robe.

Michael rocked his too.

And yet, I couldn't get them to put these stunning articles of clothing back on after the concert so I could take pictures.

Looks like we're off to a wonderfully musical year!

Solar Eclipse?

 I have long maintained that no world class astronomers likely grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I love it here, but the night sky is not something we see very often: cloudy for most of the year and the sun goes down really late for the rest.

Our last solar eclipse in the area was in August 2017 with 93% coverage. This morning was the next eclipse with significant coverage: ~81%. I stockpiled eclipse glasses and then stalked the weather page. For a while it appeared that the weather was going to cooperate. Then those darn clouds started creeping into the forecast. The boys have an "you've seen one, you've seen them all" attitude about eclipses but Jason and I drove up to the Capitol building this morning to get a good view to the east.

Behold! Maximum eclipse coverage. Those clouds really diffuse that sunlight such that it's really really hard to see....never mind. You can't even tell. Sigh.

We might have to go traveling to find the next solar eclipse. My vote is Iceland in August 2026.

A Day at the Zoo with Isaac

With four children and a busy schedule, we don't often have the opportunity to spent some quality time with them individually. We did however have an 8yo with a free pass to the zoo and no brothers interested visiting the animals so today turned into an adventure with just Isaac.

Somehow we have managed to live here for awhile and Jason had never been to our local zoo. This particular zoo also has an aquarium and a lovely view of the Olympics. Well, on a clear day there is a view of the Olympics. We did have a lovely time, but it was just as well that we had gone to a zoo on our weekend away because going to the zoo with Isaac is a little like listening to an audio book at 2x speed - you definitely finish it more quickly. The pictures below are the few I took when he wasn't moving too fast for the camera.

The aquarium is one of my favorite parts. Aside from how cool all the animals are, none of them are asleep when you come to visit. (Though I definitely don't begrudge zoo animals peace and quiet since there are some ethical issues with having zoos.)

I don't know if this slithery friend was awake or not, but the posing for pictures was excellent.

A new exhibit since our last visit is the Budgie Buddies where you can enter an aviary and feed the budgies (parakeets?) while the birds flit around and chirp. Isaac fed one that matched his jacket.

For Isaac, the highlight of the day was the carousel. Jason and I each took a turn riding in circles...so many circles. We only had one trip in us each so he took his third turn alone. And that is when we cut him off and lured him away with the promise of food.

Apparently the chicken strips at the zoo restaurant are possibly the best on the planet, so he was in heaven.

One last stop to pose with the walrus on our way to the car ended our day. 

September on FB

As the school year starts, I would like to share some tips on how to help kids with anxiety 😆 

This child is CLEARLY NOT old enough to start high school tomorrow and I will be offended if anyone tries to tell me otherwise

It's so sweet when your beginning reader reads a Biscuit book to you (about a little tan dog). Less sweet when your more advanced reader reads a Dog-Man book to you (about who knows what....and....just....why?).

Michael was this many years old when his mom realized that left-handed scissors really do make a difference. 🤦‍♀️

Maybe it will help if I think of "Arguing" as my kids' love language 🤷‍♀️

It only took until 2023 for a female crash test dummy to be designed. It only took until 2023 for the auto industry to admit in practice that women are not just scaled-down men.

I would like to personally thank the New York Times games page for keeping me humble.