An Adorable Distraction

It feels like the world is in a state of chaos. I have many thoughts, but not enough mental bandwidth to write them down at the moment. Instead, here's a picture of a boy who thinks bow ties are cool and sometimes asks to wear them, whether he's going to church or not.

President Phoebe

A few weeks ago Phoebe's class held a President Museum. Each kid picked a President of the US to research and represent during a morning gathering for parents and the other third grade classes. Phoebe chose Warren G. Harding. Cooper let her borrow his suit for the presentation. I darkened her eyebrows and used dry shampoo to add white to her hair.

Topher really enjoyed watching Phoebe pretend to be someone else.

See the circle on the table to the side of Phoebe? Each of the kids had one of those. The parents had to tap the circle to activate the presentation. The students had each written and then memorized a list of facts about their president.

Each student had a pose that they adopted when they weren't giving their memorized speech. This was Phoebe's, based on a photo she found online of Harding.

Here it is again, from a different angle.

About twenty minutes in the whole class gathered on the stage and sang patriotic songs for the parents. Phoebe was in charge of pushing FDR in her wheelchair. She wanted to make sure we all knew the chair was a prop and that her friend was actually fine.

Phoebe did a great job and it was fun to watch her perform!

Strings

How to Impress Third Graders

Last Friday was the big Career Day presentation. After confirming when I would present, Phoebe's teacher increased my allotted time from 15-20 minutes to 20-30 minutes. And, as is usual for me, I over prepared.

I arrived at the classroom with a laundry basket full of stuff. Most of the kids didn't know what job I was coming to talk about. I opened the presentation by pulling three colorful scarves out of a bag.

Then I juggled the scarves.

I told them that my job requires juggling, lots of juggling. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it gets big and out of control (as did my juggling at that moment), and sometimes it gets so big and overwhelming that I drop something (cue a dropped scarf). At that point I asked the kids if they knew what job I was talking about. The first girl that I called on said, "A mom?" I told her she was correct and that I was there to talk about being a parent.

I told the kids that some parents work inside the home and some work outside the home, and that I was one that worked inside the home. Then I went to the board and asked them to name some of the things that parents do for them at home. They started slowly, but picked up speed. Soon they had the entire board full. One boy called out in shock, "How do you have enough time in the day to do all this?!"

At this point I asked the kids to guess how much it would cost to pay someone to do all the jobs they had listed. The highest amount guessed was $100,000. I told them about the annual Salary.com article that comes out at Mother's Day and says what they think a stay-at-home mom (which I extended to include stay-at-home dads) would be worth financially if they received a salary. Their 2019 calculation was $178,201. The kids thought that sounded like a lot of money. Then I asked if we actually make money as parents. They said no. One kid yelled out something about hugs. I responded by telling them they were right, parents are paid in hugs and kisses and lots of homemade artwork.

Next I had Phoebe help me unload my basket. It was full of books, toys, kitchen utensils, band-aids, coupons, weights, cleaning cloths, various medical supplies (including a stethoscope), a baby doll, and a stuffed dog. I told the kids that we were going to play a game. They would take turns and do as many parent jobs as they could in one minute. I had a stack of index cards with tasks like "read to the baby" and "pay a bill" on them. I called out as many of the cards as time would allow and the kids scrambled to use the props I had supplied to do the job. We only had time to do this with three kids, but they appeared to have lots of fun, and the rest of the class cheered them on. This helped illustrate that parents have a lot they're responsible for but not a lot of time to get everything done.

Then I told the kids that they were going to take a few minutes to write thank you notes to their parents or grandparents or whoever did most of the care-giving at their house. I passed out blank cards and envelopes and the kids got to writing. While they wrote I pulled out my ukulele and said that one thing many parents do is sing lullabies. I asked if the kids had any favorite lullabies we could sing while they wrote their cards. Thank goodness one girl said Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, because I can play that on the ukulele. The girls especially liked this part and they happily sang with me while I strummed and they wrote.

I finished off by telling them that each parent is different. Some of us love to sing and read books with our kids, some of us play sports with them. But one thing that we all have in common is that we love our kids and work hard to keep them safe and cared for.

Phoebe's teacher had a question for me when I concluded. He said he remembered how much time it took to take care of his oldest daughter when she was born and then how much more time was required when his second (and final) daughter was born. He wanted to know how on earth I managed five kids. Without saying a word I walked over to my bag and pulled out three scarves. I started to juggle again and told the class that it really is like juggling. I have to balance and juggle how much of my time and attention each child gets.

That's when I announced that I had a scarf for each child that wanted one and handed them out to the students. I had also purchased enough referee whistles for the entire class (a hilarious suggestion that came from a dear friend), but when I mentioned that to some moms with school age children the night before the presentation they looked panic stricken and asked if I was really going to send whistles home with a bunch of nine-year-olds. Huh, they had a point. So I held onto those. I also meant to hand out balloons and talk about keeping the fun in parenting, but I totally spaced it. The scarves were enough.

Overall, I think it went well. Phoebe was pleased and the class was really engaged. One girl kept yelling out, "Phoebe, your mom is really fun!" High praise from a third-grader. Big thanks go to Bryan who retaught me how to juggle scarves when I discovered that that particular muscle memory didn't reach back twenty years to when I first learned. That was not something I should have left until the night before to check on, but he was a good teacher and it all worked out in the end.

When I finished Phoebe hugged me and said, "I didn't know you could juggle!"

I'm Blue

While I was getting breakfast for the kids yesterday morning before church I noticed something new.

Me: Sophie, is there a streak of blue in your hair?

Sophie: (grinning sheepishly) Yes.

Me: When did you color your hair blue?

Sophie: Before my shower yesterday.

So, in other words, this is what it looks like after one wash. I wonder how many washes it will take for the blue to go away completely.

Cool to be Kind

We've had several neighbors here in our development that relocated from Turkey. I try to introduce myself whenever a new family moves in and then I say hello when I see them outside. That's the relationship that I developed with the Turkish family that lived two doors down from us. I would say hello and smile, I would offer (and be politely refused) several rides home in the rain to their school-aged son, and that was about it.

A few weeks ago I noticed a moving van outside of their house. When I left to get the girls from the bus one of our neighbors was out. We had a brief chat and I learned they were moving to a house just a few minutes away. I said something about what lovely homes were in that area and wished them well.

On Sunday after church our doorbell rang. I opened the door to see this family, the father (with whom most of my interactions took place), the aforementioned son, an older son, and the rarely seen mother. They handed me a gift bag and said that they would miss us as neighbors.

I thanked them for the treat, a box of Turkish baklava, and again wished them well. Then I came inside and read the note. Here's what it said:

Dear neighbor,

Before moving to our new house, it was important to my family to let you know how much we enjoyed having you as neighbors for the last three years. If we were ever a burden, we sincerely apologize. Despite not always speaking the same language, we will always look back on our visits with you with a smile. We hope our new neighbors share your kindness and caring spirit. Please enjoy the Baklava from our home country of Turkey. We wish you nothing but the best for you and your family.

Then they signed it and included their phone number.

I was shocked. All I had done was smile and say hello when we both happened to be outside. I had no idea those small gestures had such a big impact. Perhaps this is cultural. The other Turkish neighbors we've had have also been gracious and generous. But we suspect that maybe not everyone gave them such a friendly reception.

Kindness is important, even when we don't realize it.

Choose to be kind.

Grow Your Mind

After our time at the Temple on Saturday morning, we visited the Franklin Institute. Each person got to choose one activity for us to do, then we spent a little time at each of the desired exhibits.

Sophie chose the heart exhibit because it includes a giant heart that you can climb through:

Phoebe, our lover of rocks, picked an exhibit about geology and weather.

I opted for an IMAX film on volcanoes. Here's something you might not know: Topher hates loud sounds (he tolerates his exceptionally loud siblings, in case you were concerned), so a movie with lots of lava explosions was not a great choice.

Cooper wanted to visit Newton's Lab, a room full of activities about motion.

Bryan voted for a traveling exhibit all about what to do in case you're in an emergency situation. They had a giant ball pit meant to teach the kids what to do in case of an avalanche. It was the highlight of the visit for all four kids big enough to enjoy it.

In this picture Sophie is waiting for a cascade of lightweight clear balls to come pouring onto her.

Cooper, falling into the pit.

Peter, also falling into the pit, while Phoebe looks on.

Peter, whose current educational aspirations include earning six different bachelor's degrees in various kinds of engineering, picked an exhibit all about machines.

Topher participated where he could, spent a lot of time in his stroller, and really enjoyed the pizza we ate at the cafeteria. We can probably count that as his activity choice for the day.

We left early enough that we weren't fighting extra traffic and still had time for dinner and showers before bed, which was perfect.

Keen

"Mom! Take my picture of the letter K for my teacher!"

A Place of Love and Beauty

On Saturday morning Cooper went to the Temple and performed baptisms for the dead for the first time. He, along with Peter and Bryan joined the Youth from our ward at the Philadelphia Temple for the service opportunity.

Our entire family got up at 5AM and drove down to arrive (close to) on-time for the scheduled visit. While the big boys served in the Temple, the rest of us hung out in the van (in what the kids dubbed as the cleanest parking garage they'd ever seen), walked through the visitor's center, and took a very quick and very cold walk around the Temple.

I asked Cooper if the Temple was everything he thought it would be. "Nope," he said, "it was more."

Careful Where You Leave Your Glasses