Harvest Fest 2012

The calender may say summer, but if you stand very still in the early morning air and take a deep breath you can smell fall already.  I'm ready.  It's my favorite time of year in Oregon.  Well, truth be told I like August - October.  The dog days of summer that melt into autumn and keep on rolling until Halloween.  The days just seem ripe with promise.  Promise of a good harvest, promise of the new school year (I still buy a few supplies for myself every year. The smell of a freshly sharpened #2 pencil makes me smile every time), promise of warms days and cool nights, promise of blazing colors and of course promise of the upcoming hibernation.

John Deere tractor 

In honor of the coming months we piled the family in the covered wagon (okay, the beat up Suzuki) and headed out to Sauvie Island to the first Harvest Fest of the fall.  There was a hayride and the corn ma(i)ze. There was the cow train (ow, ow, ow.... those cows need to get some shock absorbers) and a hay pyramid.   There was a whole new set of memories to create, and I'm pretty sure we made more then a few.

checking the clues to get out of the ma(i)ze

That's right honey, give us a smile.

getting bigger!

Whoa, I'm almost 4 feet tall!

"Neema" always had fun.

Too cool for words.

Even Mommy climbed to the top of the hay pyramid

Imagination drives the day

I think we're lost...

Kudos to Patrick

So, this post is going to be about Patrick.  He doesn’t get much press around here.  Usually it’s all about the kids or me.  Which is really a shame because he’s a pretty terrific guy and he’s very much a part of our lives, what with being my husband, the father to the aforementioned kids etc etc.  So, this ones for him.

Patrick has had a pretty terrific summer.  He’ graduated with his Masters from Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Management (SLIM as they called it) and had a full on production of his play “Continuum” produced.  Both of these things are wonderful accomplishments, but when you think the past year we’ve had I think they become even bigger.

In case you missed it, in the past 12 months my father passed away, I spent 3 weeks in the hospital and another 3 weeks at home recovering, my mother passed away and over the course of time I spent a total of over 4 weeks in Iowa.  (Which is going to be a story to tell in and of itself!)

Now in the midst of all this chaos Patrick kept the children fed and happy, the bills got paid and he kept his job, there were papers to write, presentations to give and re-writes to be done on the play, dishes to be done and laundry to be folded.   Oh, and he tended my incisions and comforted me when I thought I’d never recover. He ferried kids to birthday parties and kept up Friday night movie and pizza tradition. He was like the Energizer Bunny, never stopping. And if that wasn’t enough he did all this while managing to keep his 4.0 grade average.  It never once slipped.  I MEAN COME ON!  WHO CAN DO THAT?!?  Patrick Wohlmut that’s who.  When lesser men would have thrown in the towel (and to be fair, there was a point when I thought he would) he kept his wits about him kept his eye on the prize and just kept doing what needed to be done.

We are just so lucky to have a man who is as passionate about his family as he is about his school work and his creative endeavors.  He is a modest man when it comes to his parenting skills. He will often say that I am the better parent.  I say the jury is still out on that one.  (I mean let’s face it there’s puberty, teen-age angst, curfews, body piercings, boy/girlfriends and my own menopause to get through.  So, you know there’s a long haul to go before giving either one of us a “Better” rap then the other.)

Patrick would also be the first one to say that he didn’t do it all alone.  We had a “village” of family and friends who rallied around us and kept us sane and afloat. But, I am still so very impressed and proud of how he kept his head about him and stayed the course.  I know he was stressed, I know there were times when he thought it was too much and he would never see the end, but for the most part he kept that from us. (He also found that running was a great stress release) 

Summer is over and Patrick has landed a part time job at Washington State University (Vancouver campus) as a reference librarian.  He starts his training today.  Go Patrick!

Feeding the fish

 

Ms L remembers to feed the fish after lights out.  

 

Photo of the day "17"

17: the number of the times I said, "Oh, look it's another Lego" today when we were cleaning the house.  (This creation is courtesy of Mr N.)

photo of the day

You're never too old to need your Daddy.

LOVE

Kindergarten circa 1972

Can you believe it, Ms L starts Kindergarten in 2 weeks.  That means N will be in second grade. Where does the time go?    Flashes from my own kindergarten days danced in my brain this week.  Here are just a few of those flashes:

The first week of Kindergarten Susan Stevens lost her red tennis shoe down the storm drain in the school yard.  It was raining and so she had to hop all the way to the doorway of the school.  She then made her way to the classroom, a gaggle of concerned girls by her side consoling her with pats and smiles.  I am sure she expected sympathy from Mrs Reasland, I’m sure we all did.  After all she lost her RED! shoe.  (I in my clunky orthopedic shoes with the metal braces attached to them coveted those shoes) None of us expected that she’d get in trouble.  And yet she did.  She was deemed, “irresponsible and foolhardy” and these words followed her the rest of the school year.  She became an example to us all anytime someone was careless with an object they were admonished with, “you don’t want to be like Susan and her red shoe do you?”   Even at the tender of age of 5 that phrase rang so harsh in my head and I felt it in my gut every time I heard it.  I hope somewhere Susan has a closet full of red tennis shoes (and pink and green and blue ones, too).

“Look Out, Mrs Doodlepunk” was my favorite book in Kindergarten.  I loved how the heroine of the story got the better of Mr.Frizzboy and his squirt gun.  In addition to simple drawings there was a map at the end of the book that showed exactly the route Mrs Doodlepunk walked her baby and where Mr Frizz boy hid in the tree.  That map was fascinating to me, I would stare at that map and trace her route endlessly.  What that map represented to me I cannot say, perhaps I was in awe of the freedom Mrs Doodlepunk had to be able to go all around the neighborhood without her mommy.   One day I got to read the book out loud to my kindergarten classroom.  I felt pretty grownup sitting in the little chair while everyone else sat on their mats in a semi -circle around me.  It may have been my first taste of a large captive audience and I loved it!

Does anyone else remember the smell of the blue mimeograph pages?  I loved that smell.  I loved to go into the supply room and watch Ms Gloria run off the sheets for the classrooms.  That smell meant worksheets and coloring sheets.  It meant learning.

I remember taking naps on towels we brought from home that we stored in cubbys in the middle of the room.  We only went 1/2 days and just before noon we'd nap.  Or we were supposed to nap.  I don't remember if anyone actually ever napped, except maybe that's what Mrs Reasland was doing with her head down on her desk.  I do remember that Kevin Snodgrass and Doug Reasland (the teacher was his GRANDMA!) would push a hot wheel back and forth between them as quietly as they possibly could.  I'm pretty sure they weren't supposed to do that, but they did.  And it seemed like they never got caught.

Apple butter - we made it for Fall Festival/Open house.  I make it now for my family most years and it brings back such memories.  Some are good, and some are sad... but that tale is for another time.

I loved kindergarten.

photo of the day

Part of the new mural on the Keller Auditorium

Just under the wire for the promise of a post a day.

This image is from a mural on the wall of a the Keller Auditorium in Portland.   It's a wonderful new mural by a local artist.  Once I know his/her name I will share credit.  This image is my favorite from the mural.  It reminds me of popcorn and the Day of the Dead. Someday I'm going to celebrate the Day of the Dead and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.

Despite all my issues with the Catholic Church I love the traditions that include the Virgin Mary.  If her story is true it's one of the greatest love stories of all time.