I Love You Like Circles: August 2008

Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school. These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup -- they all die. So do we. And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: look. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living. Think what a better world it would be if we all -- the whole world -- had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together. ~ Robert Fulghum ~

Monday, August 4, 2008

Alec's Tonsillectomy

Everyone please keep Alec in your prayers, he is having his tonsils and adenoids removed on Wednesday. He will be staying in the hospital overnight. Jack had this same procedure done when he was the same age as Alec, they don't like it! Please pray for him to have a speedy recovery! Thanks

Garden City 2008

This past week we went to Garden City Beach with my mom's family. All 6 brothers and sisters and their children. We really had a fun time and got to do lots of fun things. This year everyone was a lot wiser and we got 2 beach houses instead of one. I don't care how close your family is or how much you love each other 25 people in one house is a bad idea!!! This year all people with young kids were in one house and grown ups were in one house, although I am not sure my male cousins qualify as grown-ups. A few mornings Patrick and I were up with the children at 7:00 and the cousins had not gone to bed yet!! I swear I do not remember ever doing that!!!!
We pretty much played on the beach every morning before the sun came out full force and had some activity planned for the afternoon. Mom and Patrick took Anna and Jack to the mud bar one afternoon. Anna had been last year but this was Jack's first time sinking up to his knees in mud. He didn't seem to even have a problem with that until millions of fiddler crabs started emerging! He does not do crabs and I don't know if he will want to do the mud bar again. They had the annual mud fight on the bar and when they came back Anna's entire ear canal was filled with black mud! Poor Patrick forgot to bring old shoes to wear so he wore shoes that were 2 sizes too small and had terrible blisters later. Everyone enjoyed Bates' new boat especially Jack. He went out one time for well over an hour and had no desire to get off the boat. He had his captain's seat picked out and was happy as a clam there. One day Patrick went knee boarding with Jack looking on from his seat. When they got back I asked Jack "How did Daddy do kneeboarding?" His response was.. "He did good but then he fell off and drowned one time." To Jack if you are fully submerged under water for any length of time you have officially drowned. Alec loved everything about the beach especially hanging out with Cousin Laura who is 6 months younger. Anna especially loved being with her big girl cousins and their friends and she could have stayed on the beach until sundown. We managed to stay for 5 days and that beats our 4 days last year. Maybe next year we'll make 6!!!