Småsaker

Roughly translating to "odds and ends", or, Nathaniel informs me, literally translating to "small things", which works as well.

*****

Most of you saw my i/g post the other day about how much I appreciate stragglers, for making me feel less late. You guys, we get later for school every day! I hassle and prod and cajole and rush these kids all morning to get them out the door. Some days half the kids are ready 20 minutes early and sitting with a cup of a tea and a book. BUT STILL! By the time we actually get coats and boots on and make it down the four flights of stairs and out the door... we're late. And later. It's getting ridiculous.

On the up side, they're just missing the start of class here, as opposed to at home where they'd be missing the start of mass, which makes me feel extra guilty. But that's another thing! We don't even have to worry about fasting for mass, and we're still failing. Hmph.

I realize there's an easy answer. I could just wake everyone up earlier. I'm not an idiot - it's pretty basic math. Start sooner and we should, theoretically, leave sooner, and therefore arrive sooner. Two problems with that: First, I love my last 10 minutes of sleep. Love it. The thought of giving it up pains me. Second, that note above about how some days they're ready on time and we're still late... I'm not sure getting up any earlier will solve this. There's something about the final few minutes of getting out the door that we are just horrible at. I should probably try it, though. The getting up early. Maybe I'll make it one of my Lenten penances (that I get to inflict on the whole family).

For now, I just watch that one mom cross paths with me progressively further from school. I used to see her in the school. Then just outside. Then on the stair by the school... Today, she was two full blocks from school getting ready to board her bus when we walked by. I smiled and said good morning sheepishly. Thank heavens there were still a few stragglers coming in even later than us!

*****

We are up to eight and a half hours of daylight per day and it feels pretty amazing! The sun doesn't set till nearly 4:30, which seems so incredibly normal after the bizarro 2 o'clock hour settings a few weeks ago. We've gotten multiple little dustings of snow over the past couple weeks - enough to keep the ground and buildings lightly coated and pretty. Nathaniel was able to take the kids sledding tonight, though the hill was packed and iced and therefore dangerously fast. Winter is trekking along, and we're mostly enjoying it. There's comfort in knowing that our temps are often higher than those in Lincoln, even if that's only because of record lows in Lincoln.

A Swedish news program Nathaniel listens to to practice his language skills noted that earlier this week Sweden experience what they call a "National Ice Day", meaning the entire country was below freezing for a full 24 hours. Apparently that hasn't happened in a couple of years, so was notable. So don't think we've got it totally easy over here. It's cold. And we haven't had the upswings to 50F to thaw us out - it just sits right here around freezing day after day. Peter is so sick of me making him wear long johns under his jeans to school, but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do (when her kid will have an hour of mandatory outdoor play in freezing, possibly wet weather).

*****

Memory to save: This week, Peter and Meg invented a game that's great for burning energy, less great for being good, quiet neighbors. Peter has been super into folding paper airplanes of late. A couple days ago, Peter and Meg asked me if they could launch a pile of airplanes off our balcony, then retrieve them from the courtyard. I agreed (desperate times - living in a flat with five kids - call for desperate measures). They LOVED it. They ended up launching them, running down for them, launching them again, repeat, till I made them stop for dinner. Last night they changed it up a little. One kid went to the courtyard and attempted to catch the airplanes as the other launched them from the balcony. The catcher would then bring the airplanes back up to the thrower, then run down for more. Halfway through, they swapped roles. (Rachel went down as well to kick around a recently purchased soccer ball. Best $9 I've spent in a while!)

It was a great game, for the most part. The only downside was the noise factor. How can a seven year old boy be expected to launch, or chase and catch, airplanes without yelling and shouting for joy?! Unfortunately, the courtyard is very echo-y. More than once, while I was in the kitchen making dinner, I'd hear through the (closed) kitchen window, the crescendoing voices of my dear children, and have to rush to shush them, either through the balcony door in my bedroom or by actually calling to them in the courtyard from the balcony - classy. I imagine every other dinner chef could hear them just as loudly as I could, without the benefit of knowing who they were or WHY they were whooping and hollering.

I only found one abandoned airplane while passing through the courtyard with my laundry this morning. At least they didn't litter!