Camp Seymour: All About Water

We actually started this year attending a YMCA camp program for homeschoolers. I’d read about it last year, but I blew it off thinking it too involved, or whatever. Who knows what I was thinking then. This year, however, we’re going and oh my stars, it’s so fabulous. What a treat to look forward to a structured, socially engaging outing like this once a month–that Mom doesn’t have to plan, to boot.

Our reminder email read as follows: “The theme for the day focuses on water and how important it is for so many different reasons. We will start the day off with a tour of Camp Seymour’s alternative waste-water treatment center, the “Living Machine.” For background information see http://www.campseymour.org/uploads/documents/6.pdf Next we will go boating (rowboats, canoes, and kayaks for those 11 and older) rain or shine in beautiful Glen Cove. After lunch, we’re going swimming in our heated pool. PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING A SWIM SUIT if you might go swimming. “

G heard that some Moms drop off and pick up, and requested that I not do that. However, she blended into the “herd” and pretty much ignored me the whole time. Excellent! She really seemed to be enjoying herself full out, and found her own stride, and her own friends. The naturalists did a fabulous job, both professionally and personally. While the program is open to homeschoolers in second grade and above, the staff made true on their literature’s promise that younger sibs were welcome. Both boys were fully included, active participants. I still am reeling by how inexpensive this program is for what they provide.

The lunchroom lodge

What a group! The kids had their choice of canoes, kayaks or rowboats.

Finishing up, stacking canoes

What do tired homeschoolers do after an hour of paddling? Spectator giant chess, of course!

Stormy

Last night we had a thunderstorm here. Like, a real thunderstorm! It was surreal to experience that here, when it had been such a commonplace summer event in Charleston. I didn’t even mind I had sheets drying on the line. We just unplugged the electronics, let the dog in and opened up the bedroom windows so we could see the lightning and hear it pour.

It was an interesting cap to an interesting weekend. We spent a lot of time with friends; Sunday we had Mackattack and family over for her Compleanos and Monday we had a beach bonfire with Niki and family. I have some stunning shots from that, courtesy of Mr. Fran.

P-daddy started back to work today. I miss him but I look forward to getting back to my rhythm. I despair that maybe I really am destined to be a fat woman. I rarely eat breakfast or a real lunch, and I did both every day for the past two weeks. I have gained ten pounds in that time. Holy crap. one of the pictures Fran took should have been an endearing shot….I was showing Niki how to knit for the first time. It is ruined for me by the FOUR rolls of fat on my back. SHUDDER. Who is that and where did I go?

I think I shall eat only vegetables and meat. And coffee! That is nectar, after all.

Do you want some caffeine with that?

P-daddy had surgery last week Thursday. It was both elective and medically necessary, meaning he could have chosen not to seek it out but the condition (which I will decline to broadcast here) would have continued to grow and cause him pain. We’ll find out the results of the biopsy tomorrow, but we are not worried.

He did well after surgery, during which he was put under general anesthesia. The multi-care presence at Allenmore was amazingly efficient and friendly–it was a day surgery machine, I tell you. The funniest bit was the anesthesiologist, who offered P-daddy some caffeine in his IV. “You haven’t had your coffee, have you? Do you have a withdrawal headache?” Not two minutes prior, P-daddy had said he felt one coming on. He declined the extra jolt, though.

Niki had the children while we were gone all day for this procedure, and then stayed over to watch them again the next morning for the 8 AM (!!!) follow up appointment at the dr’s office. While I recognize this is a beneficial trade-off (in our eyes anyway) for an inpatient stay, it still was somewhat overwhelming. Paul and I commented how wonderful it was to not even have to think about the kids.

Anyway, what that means in terms of my online life is that well, I am not here. Not like I usually am anyway! P-daddy is a terrible, terrible convalescent and when I am not enforcing bed rest, I have the children away from the house.

We had a last huzzah at the Renny Faire last weekend with some dear friends (see Niki’s blog for some pix) and it sounds as if we have infected both those families with our madness. I am already looking forward to next year. Cruelly, my peasant Renny costume arrived moments before we left to go to the fair. The thing is, I bought it a size down because I knew I wouldn’t be receiving it in time to use this year. OOOOOOWWWWWWWCH! Oh the whining my friends heard that day! (Not to mention the flat-out, cackling, laughter from my dd when she saw me try it on anyway.)

~D~ got lost at the Renny Faire. ~G~ got lost at the Renny Faire. It was a tough day at the Renny Faire, but as fun as ever in retrospect! I was somewhat sad for P-daddy when we returned and he said wistfully, ” I wish I could have gone.” This guy never wants to do anything like I do, so I am really happy about his affection for it! There are a lot of these in WA and OR, not to mention the ones that aren’t quite Renny, but have to be just as smashing!

The local YMCA opened and omigoodness. It opened yesterday, and we spent several hours there yesterday and today. (G even had their first first-aid call, when she spontaneously burst into a heavy nosebleed in the pool. YUM!) The facility is actually better than I expected and everything I hoped it would be. We even got to meet another homeschooling friend there today. Day two of the facility and we already had a swimdate! I guess I will count that as our lunch-on-Wednesday date, cause I am retentive that way.

After the pool, the boys and I took to the gym and shot hoops while G ran a mile on the track. Not kidding, she counted. 9 times around is a mile. After that, she joined us and we left with promises to return again tomorrow. This is going to be a very good thing.

All my homeschooling homies are gearing up for the non-year to begin. It’s fun talking to each other and comparing notes. I have two ladies coming over on Friday to talk homeschooling and pick blackberries. I am crazy. I know that I am.

I am trying to remain positive

But I am really hating my van right now. So I shall go on about the positive, and ignore my pounding sinus headache, in itself the just desserts for well, desserts.

On an upswing, we had a lovely weekend. We did. We got the van back Friday night* and on Saturday, drove to a friend’s birthday party at Odyssey. The kids love what Chiknman refers to as “the human habitrail,” and they did the party very efficiently. My kids havenever been to an arcade before, so when they took the children to that half of the play complex, their little heads started spinning. By the time we were ready (omg please let me out!) to leave, the children were, too. They each got puzzle boxes as party favors and the big kids actually put them together that night. (Their mom is not a fan of jigsaw puzzles, so I was pleasantly surprised by how well that went over here. )

Saturday afternoon, P-daddy got a gardening jig on and dug a new bed for our strawberries. He went NUTS, and built a rock wall around it and everything. I was really impressed with that, [pictures to come], and he was soooore the next day.

On Sunday, P-daddy went golfing and then we went to Penrose to scope out the perfect camping spot. You can reserve online, and WA State parks tries to make it as convenient as possible by including pictures , but …if you can drive to see for yourself, it’s so much easier. The tide was lower than any tide I have ever seen anywhere in my life. We walked into the inlet, out past the archipelago, for those of you who have been there. (Not the one on the left, the one on the right— the two mile nature trail. ) People were clamming everywhere, bringing in geoducks and horse clams. We asked one man how he eats his geoduck and he said “raw.” Um. yuck.

I finished two new beading projects! One for The GreenMama’s birthday and one for a mother’s day gift. GreenMama says the birds remind her of a happy childhood memory.

Valerie is so entirely suited to these happy marine colors. The jewelry is much brighter in person than is coming across in these pics.

Today we’re off to the zoo for a birthday party in P-Daddy’s car. Out! During the day! With people! And I get to give two of the bead recipients their stash! Yay!

*It is making clickety valve noises and on Sunday, when we drove back home fromPenrose, the gauges stopped working. The van would still run, start and go, but I couldn’t see how fast we were going or whether we had any gas. Not acceptable after a 5 week sacrifice and 1650.00 expenditure.

We scaled the secret staircase

Remember this post?

We went from the beach to the top of the cliff up the secret staircase. Even the kids made LOTR jokes because we felt like Frodo and Sam following Gollum into Mordor. Thankfully, only the steep climb was even remotely like the film. We hadn’t attempted it before yesterday because I didn’t think D-baby could manage it. In some places, someone had built footholds into the cliff, as you see in the picture, but most of the time it was like a very narrow game trail with an unforgiving drop off through the blackberry thickets to the rocky beach below.

The big kids were fast as lightning. What’s narrow to a 35 pound person? The toddler, however, had more of a struggle, but only because his legs were so little. He loved every second of the climb. I used my walking stick to dig into the trail ahead of him, as I arched overhead, and he used that as purchase to keep going. It wasn’t great for my back, but baby was way-safe and I got to ignore the vertigo I get on high, narrow things. The big kids kept stopping to enjoy the view and expound “Whooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa look how high we are! ” which, spaz that I am, would make me look. oooooooooo don’t look, ~L~

It was a beautiful climb, though, beautiful, beautiful. When we go back without toddler, we’ll be able to see all of Gig Harbor from some points. The problem is this: it doesn’t lead into the Harry Potter woods. I am proud to note that it is exactly the same latitude as the HP woods, but I forgot about the cul de sac that abuts the woods just before the cliff. We crested the rise and abruptly found ourselves in someones back yard (sound familiar?), but fortunately there was a construction site just next door. The kids wanted to go down the way we came (“um, no kids, I will talk to the neighbors before we’d do that”) We skirted the existing house and walked the edge of the construction site to get to our street, far above where we’d normally take the path down to the beach. To those who know the walk, we were in the cul de sac with the beautiful Rainer view and the rental house I constantly lament).

G: That was COOL! I have to peeeeeeeee!!!!!!
N: Let’s do it AGAIN! Right now!
D: DO it again! This way! This way!
G: I have to peeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (runs home)

The compromise was that the boys and I went into the Harry Potter woods and took the forest loop back to our property. When we got back to the property but were still in the forest, we saw a beautiful red-crested woodpecker. The boys and I just stood and watched it for minutes. After the boys had been in arms for as long as I could stand it, I started taking pix. He was pretty far away, but you can make him out.

I think P-Daddy was invigorated by our escapades. After digging in the garden bed with Daddy, D-baby crashed out and G went into a painting odyssey. P-daddy took ~N~ on a walk and did the HP loop themselves. This time, a pregnant doe crossed their path (in our yard, people!), pretty much unperturbed by their presence.

Later, as we were releasing into the rose garden the ladybugs we bought at home depot, ~N~ exclaimed “I have had an AWESOME day!!!”

Me too, baby boy.

Three days in a row

And yesterday, while dh and ds shore fished, ~G~ and I made a fire on the beach. I love this life.

Probably my fave pic ever.

There’s a sleeping toddler beneath those bundles.

That’s our beach. That cliff? That’s our neighborhood.

A secret way home, through the Harry Potter woods.

A seal washed in with the recent high tide, probably casualty of a boat prop.

A lot like pizza

Nikirj couldn’t conceive of a pizza made with tofu as a crust, so I made some “pizza bites” to show her how it’s done.

The recipe is taken from Fran McCullough’s tome The Low Carbohydrate Cookbook.

Once the tofu is sliced then and pressed out, you pan fry it:

Add salt, pepper, and herbs to taste:

Add the cheese and sauce:

Run it under the broiler for crisping:

Finis! And it’s tasty!

A solution!

Do you think this weaning bra might work?

from Qarin

Updates

D-meister insisted on sleeping in his own bed last night. We didn’t even suggest it. He even helped build the bed, and wouldn’t let me lay down with him. I can’t tell you how stoked I am over that. Let’s see how that continues when the novelty has worn off….. If I get my way we’ll keep the novelty happening until it’s become a habit!

I have been one week on this diet. I know, I said diet. My energy level is up and my weight is down by 6 pounds.

IKEA today, to get D a nightlight of his own.

Knitty

Yay, I am finally knitting. I have finished enough projects now to say “I can knit” or “I knit.” I really need to get this soaker done for my boy before he potty trains, but I am afraid of knitting in the round! Well actually I am less afraid of that than I am of the pattern (which I still haven’t decided on) and I haven’t been able to go to our knitting nights in three weeks to get help!

Today, I spent early morning casting on a boucle sweater for G. She chose the yarn at a Black Friday sales and I have to admit I despise working with it. For me, cute yarn makes for a hard time seeing stitches. Even still, sitting by the fire and watching the snow falling on the evergreens outside made for a nice coffeetime.

P and I are starting our pilates together time today. Yesterday was my first pain-free day for two weeks, and I am looking forward to strengthening myself enough that this doesn’t happen anymore.