Now We Are Six

DiNovember is underway! The kids are still believers, so we continue to deliver. We already have a plan for when one of the kids inevitably catches us setting up the Dino display: we're going to make that kid help us set them up. Because it gets really tiring at the end of the day trying to come up with another fresh idea! We've done some recycling but there have been some new adventures too. One of my favorites was the night the Dinosaurs went camping.


For the full adventures, see my  Facebook or Instagram account.

November also means I have to deal with my daughter getting another year older, which I can't do without mixed emotions. Because on the one hand, every year I'm further and further from this:

I can't handle it.

On the other hand, she does get more delightful every year.


Adele at 6 is a little woman. She is handy around the house and loves to help. She's incredibly articulate and is always whipping out sassy phrases we didn't know she knew. She loves to dance and read and listen to the Moana soundtrack (over and over and over). She is killing it in kindergarten; her teacher says she has a positive attitude and is a big helper in the classroom. They're letting her  participate in the Accelerated Reader program, which most kids start in first grade, and for which I'm grateful as it keeps her challenged and engaged while the rest of the class is learning letter sounds and such. And she loves PE and Art and Music and all the friends she's made, several of whom made it to her party.



We decorated for our first birthday party at home! This is the first home I've had that I felt I could invite anyone to visit. Of course, it has to be 1600 miles away from most people I know... but still, we enjoyed freely inviting everyone Adele fancied to come to her party.

Mr. Magic is the local kid-charming genius. We've run into him performing at our favorite restaurant, Tres Margaritas and at other kids' birthday parties. Every time we see him he makes our whole family laugh. The kids beam when they see Mr. Magic, so I was thrilled when he was available for Adele's party. The show did not disappoint!

He had each of Adele's friends up to assist a different trick, and it was constant laughter and awe. And I was grateful that their moms felt comfortable leaving them at the party, so that it could be a party for like 12 people and not for 20+ people, which would have been a strain on our space and chairs.

The magic show was a trip. Mr. Magic had a gimmick for every trick to engage the kids. I'd recommend him to you, but he'd be a bit of a commute for most of my readers.
The finale had Adele help to mix a birthday cake, which, when he removed the lid, contained a bunny! We were cracking up because Koopa didn't figure out there was a rabbit in the house until Mr. Magic was all packed up to leave. Koopa just sat there calmly while a rabbit won the adoration of all the children; meanwhile, the kitten was crawling all over the bunny carrier when the show was over. This is one possible argument against Koopa's having hound ancestry.

 
Adele is all about everything pony this year. Especially does she love the Equestria girls, which, if you don't know what that is... just enjoy that. I don't need to intrude upon your ignorant bliss.
But great was her delight in her cake and in her gifts.
 

Look at the gorgeous hand-made cross-stitch piece she got from her old babysitter! I think she felt the love.

 We're on Thanksgiving break, and I'm trying to re-learn how to relax. Breaks can be oddly hard when you're teaching, because not only is there usually grading to take home, but I at least have like half a dozen small projects I've been putting off because my day-to-day life doesn't allow any extra projects. Miles needs to learn his times tables and do his science project for the fair, and so on. But my immune system had another little min-collapse this week, which shows me I'm running on adrenaline a lot of the time. I'm trying to see what I can do to go more lightly while I'm teaching, so I'm not collapsing at every opportunity.

Some of this will have to involve more laughing and being more present. I'm glad I was paying attention to see how gorgeous they looked in the evening light the other night.
 
Adele's official birthday was Monday and she wanted to spend it skating. She's improving! Look at her taking her hands off her balance walker.

This was her birthday dress.
And this is her birthday hoodie! Thanks Grandpa Jim! 
 In the evening, we visited a playground at sunset and then gathered around the warm candles for Adele's requested meal of waffles and sausage, and for another cake. She is celebrated and she is admired and she is so so loved.



But can she please stop growing so fast?

Rock-a my Soul (in the bosom of Abraham)

This October has had so much sunshine and beauty.
And struggle, and prayer, and mundanity. But I'm going to show you some beauty, because that's what I want to remember.

I took this selfie a couple of Saturdays back when I was giving myself a break and a bucket-filling day. Just me lingering at the park with the dog, no makeup, cozy in my hoodie. A particularly weekend indulgence.


We had a more vigorous energy last weekend when we visited the Happy Apple Orchard.
It was a lovely day. The orchard looked... almost like a real orchard.

























I'm a little facetious. As a fall experience, Happy Apple was a lovely one. But as an orchard, it was really a disappointment. There was one bucket of small yellow apples remaining, and NO cider left. Honestly, what is the point of calling yourself an orchard? Autumn is really the season in which I am probably least content to be in Southern Colorado, even though the skies are bluer than reason and the sunshine looks awesome on the yellow leaves. There's just no sense of bounty in the nature around here.
Still, we enjoyed the hayride!

And the pallet maze!

Koopa loving tolerating the hayride

I got some decorative gourds, so you know it wasn't a total loss. Still, I bought some cider at the grocery last week and I swear to you it's white. It's WHITE. 

I miss apple country.



We're cuddled up in Fall Break this week! I am a huge fan of Fall Break; I don't know what I did without it before. Yesterday we had an experience in nature that made up for the disappointing apple scene. We finally made it the 2+ hours to the Great Sand Dunes National Park! Guys... I don't say this about a lot of things. But you  HAVE to get here. It's haunting and exhilarating at once.





After the visitor's center, you can choose to hike to the dunes over the trails, or drive. Someday, we'll always take the hike option, but this time, we drove. Still, we managed to get some epic hiking in once we got to the dunes! I was proud of our stamina at 8000 feet!

You have to begin by crossing the creek. There is no bridge. This is best done barefoot. The water is wicked cold! but the sand is warm.






Miles had a bit of a meltdown here. He is so much my kid; he didn't want to cross because the water was so cold and "the sand would make his feet messy!" I'm positive I had similar meltdowns as a child, usually surrounding my family's attempt to go fishing.

I told Miles, the water is "so high, you can't get over it (not true), so low, you can't get under it, so wide, you can't get round it" and tried to get him to sing Rock-A-My-Soul with me. It didn't work, but I enjoyed it. It took about 20 minutes and a bunch of prayers and threats to go on without him, but he finally crossed the river, put his shoes back on, and began to walk on the dunes.


If that wasn't miracle enough, we spent more than two hours climbing dunes and having the most transformational time at it, too.

When you turn around and look back from the dunes, this is what you see. 

It looks exactly like the Sahara, or like Tattooine. You expect camels at any moment.


This is a nature experience I found extremely moving, for some reason. It's a surreal place, because there appears to be absolutely no life anywhere around you. The quiet is deafening. But there's the sense that you're utterly safe, somehow, walking on these sand precipices with the only danger being that you'll fall over onto soft sand and slowly slide down the side. I can't fully describe why I found this so spiritually electric, but it was like nothing I'd experienced before. There's no loud, powerful ocean to draw your eyes or ears, just soft sand and still, cool air. And a slowly appearing sunburn, in my case.



The dog was in heaven; we let him run and frolic and dig a bit since there was so little traffic on the dunes. He was totally worn out by the end.


The peace and sense of utter security just overwhelmed us. It feels like the very best kind of dream, or like the beginning of some kind of afterlife adventure. I can hardly describe the feeling but I can't wait to go back. We've sketched out an anniversary trip complete with lodge and stargazing.



There came a point when Adele's and Jon's bodies just wouldn't go anymore. It is super taxing to hike here; imagine climbing a mountain made out of the beach. But Miles and I were inspired, so we set out and let the other two play in the sand and then mosey back toward the creek. 

Sand angels.

Miles and I made it to the top! Or at least, it felt like the top. We're calling it the top. It took a while...


Sometimes, I read, elevations of 8000 feet and higher can cause altitude sickness. I had a mild headache throughout, but mostly what I experienced was exhilaration.

Miles running along the high ridge.

At the top, you can see mountains in nearly all directions.

Bliss.


On the trip  back down, we fell in with a father and daughter on a cross country trip. They were on their way to Cali from Philadelphia and they went to church at Wayne Presbyterian! And knew about Eastern! And recognized the school where I used to work! That was a cool moment of serendipity.



On the way back down, we sang the old hobbit walking song from Fellowship and other tunes that popped into our heads, and we just laughed, for the fun of it.



That trip was worth every mile. If you make it down to see us some time on a vacation week, we'll bring you.

Spanish Peaks, twilight. 

Who are the people in your neighborhood/ The people that you meet each day?

Guys, I just can’t. The blogging thing is just not a thing I can do above maybe once a month, now. On top of that, I JUST wrote a long and thoughtful post and was nearly finished when I hit something that navigated me away from the page and I lost. it. all. There was swearing.

This is the first time I’ve been back to teaching since I started this blog when I was pregnant with Miles, and it’s kicking my ass to try to do anything beyond the essentials. As it is, I’m astounded at myself. I’m teaching full time, parenting two, singing in choir, teaching children’s chapel and keeping my pets alive. That would have put me in the hospital back when I was 26, but I’ve grown a lot since then.

Now, however, I have to discipline myself to say no to whatever is not integral, so blogging will probably become a monthly thing. 

A few weeks ago we had a Saturday that reminded us how many new friends we’ve made and are still making. Our friends Justin and Alisha (Alisha watched Adele last year) were having an emergency in which Justin was hospitalized, and I took Loki, her five year old, for the day.

 
We hunted butterflies at Belmont, and then were joined by Miles’ best friend, Robert. They were our little herd all day and were so happy with each other. At the end of the day we walked to Alisha’s good friend’s house to drop off Loki with them (they’re only a few blocks from us! So, potential new friends in our neighborhood? Maybe?).

Then as the sun was setting we walked Robert to his house, talked to his mom for a while, and then headed back to our house, where we lingered outside talking to our next-door neighbors, Aura and Gustavo, and their eight year old, Angie. And we just felt lucky to have all these good people within walking distance from our house. It’s pretty cold and vulnerable-feeling to be so far from our families and friends; the world seems cold and alien, sometimes. So this day warmed us through.

Miles and Robert. They are scientists and book-lovers and dreamers and best friends.

The kids are in ballet, now in separate classes. They are doing MUCH better that way.

I got to attend the Chile and Frijoles festival and have some Mexican food from a truck while I watched a gospel concert. Bliss.

We also had our own ER visit a couple of weeks ago when Jon pushed his arm through a pane of glass and sliced several gashes down his arm. It was ghastly; I'm only back to baseline like, now. There was blood and glass everywhere and it was 18 stitches for Jon that day. We were so tired that weekend. But I got more Epsom salts and we're trying hard to focus on rest and peace, and we're in good order now. 

In other news, Adele has a brand new relationship with Madame Tooth Fairy!

And I am growing as a teacher and really finding a lot of satisfaction in it. It’s just bloody exhausting! They sent me on a conference in Aurora this past week for two days, putting me up in one of the worse La Quintas I've seen, but I got to spend more time with my team-mate, the other sixth grade ELA teacher, Katelyn, whom I love. And get Thai food, which there ISN'T in Pueblo. So we got a lot out of it and ate a lot of free food. And we're probably about caught up on sleep by now.

My classroom wall.

I am also being PAID, now. So that’s making a massive difference to our morale! We can go to a restaurant or buy that thing we’re out of or get Halloween costumes without a second thought. It feels a bit like the promised land, except I’m working a bit too hard for that.

Celebrating Pay Day at a real restaurant

It's getting homier and homier around here, too. 

We hit up OctoberFest at the preschool yesterday- and Robert came with! He’s expressed interest in coming with us to church sometime, too. All the kids enjoyed the ponies, but Adele waited in line to go THREE TIMES. She split her face grinning; maybe she’ll be my horse-lover someday.

Also, the October weather is here! And so is the October sky. And the scents. One of the things I bought myself this month is an Autumn-scented candle. I’m pouring out the contents of my bucket every day on my students and my children, so I’m making a daily effort to do what I can to fill it back up.