Troop 22 Court of Honor

Kids -- Watch This Space

Okay, kiddos. The three of us in the center of Typhoon Johnson can use this space  to communicate. Let's do that.

This is our family newspaper. The calendar is at the top. Dad will keep it up-to-date. You can refer to it for planning. You will be expected to tell me what to put on the calendar for your life. Okay?

I'll be posting things that I think will interest you. Don't hesitate to post things you find shareable too.

Love,

Dad

Spring Break Review

Spring Break was terrific for R and M. They spent nine days at the family compound*, and I got to join them over both weekends.

Rest and relaxation was the theme of the week. There were trips to the community pool in Lincoln City for swimming and Rock Wall climbing. There was a lot of sleeping. And naps. Really! And book reading. And typing practice. And games. And playing with the dogs in the yard.

There was all sorts of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.

There was even a little time for Dear Old Dad!

It was a party. D paid a visit at the end. So did Lola.

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* Otherwise known as Grandma & Grandpa’s place on the Oregon Coast

The Start of Spring Break

…at the beach. Kids are staying the whole week with Grandma and Grandpa. I’m spending the weekends. Made it a long weekend, stayed over on Monday. It’s just the typical Spring Break in Oregon thing… dashes outside to play between rain squalls.

The pace of life at the beach place slows down immensely. It’s another world. We sleep a bit more, but still get up relatively early. Saturday, for example, I was awake just before dawn, watching the light come up through the window of my bedroom while still snuggled down under a quilt that my Mom had made by hand.

We do physical stuff at the beach, whether it’s work or play. We washed and detailed FOUR vehicles over the weekend, and we built a play fort in the side yard. The kids ran with the dogs outside whenever the rain let up.

And when it rained, we moved inside to feed our brains. The television showed Discovery channel and History channel; R spent time researching the history of the Trail of Tears forced march. M studied videos on how to do magic tricks with strings and cards. We also laid out a plan for ultra-lightweight survival packs that fit inside a coat pocket or a fanny pack, and learned more about tsunamis by studying footage of the recent Japanese events. Then we spent some time discussing how a similar tsunami might affect our house at the beach.

As I write this, I’m back home, ready for my work week. I try to hold on to the beauty of the beach pace. It’s hard, but it’s worth it. It’s not the speed, but the ability to pay full attention to something or someone important. Whether it’s the loving dog, or the child, or my parents, or a friend I hold dear. It’s about getting my thoughts squared up in “the present” and then keeping them there. Yes, there’s a future to plan for, and there’s a past to learn from. But the real impact is what I do RIGHT NOW. And a faster present does not always make for a better future.

Swedish Crème Cookies

It started like this, a question from M, over breakfast at the “Doghouse”**

“Dad, where can we get Swedish Crème Cookies?”

The conversation went from there. Seemed that a character in a book she’d just read gets pelted with Swedish Crème Cookies (SCCs) that a friend throws from up in a tree. M wants to know what they look like and where we might get some.

“Dunno” is the answer to both questions. We look it up. The recipe is quite straightforward, and they look yummy. So we all decide to make some. A quick trip to the store to get a couple cookie sheets, vegetable food coloring, almond extract and extra butter, and we’re in business making Swedish Crème Cookies. Everyone in the house lends a hand. M is having a blast. It’s her project, and everyone else helps, but defers to her ultimate decisions. She decides on blue and raspberry colored frosting for the centers. Because it’s her first time with the food coloring, M gets a bit carried away with the quantities, leaving the frosting a very intensely blue and vivid red-purple. Oh well, that’s how we learn. And, it’s vegetable coloring anyway, so that’s fine. The cookie dough was really stiff, so I had to do the rolling pin part. D guided the baking process throughout. Lola, the Beagle, cleaned the floor.

Total output: about 14 SCCs.

So, how were they? They turned out great! The frosting was a bit soft, so D refrigerated them. We had them for Saturday evening dessert. The first impulse as you held a blue SCC in your hand was to lick off the frosting that poked out around the edges. As soon as you did that, however, you were tattooed! It was like the exploding ink packets they put in the money they give to bank robbers – marked irrefutably by the SCC. You can see the evidence In this photo:  blue tongues abound!

The blue tongue thing became a bit of a focal point, to be honest. Suddenly the kids were working the blue frosting for maximum tongue/tooth impact. Notice, however, that they did a remarkable job keeping the frosting color to the INSIDES of their mouths, which is saying something because the USDA could have used this frosting to stamp their approvals on the sides of beef or something.

Leave it to R to take it all to the next logical conclusion. One SCC, pulled apart to make “Tommy”-esque eyes to go with the blue tongue. The SCC did NOT suffer from the vivisection – it was consumed immediately after the photo was taken.

 

Needless to say, toothbrushing was incredibly thorough on Saturday night: any residual food particles practically iridesced blue color. Dads could to tooth inspection from across the room this time around!

Four SCCs survived the Saturday evening onslaught, to be used in Monday morning lunches.

 

 

** without much real explanation as to their reasoning, the kids now refer to Dad’s house as “The Doghouse”. It just seemed to happen organically. It fits.

School Calendar

 

PPS expects the 2011-12 school calendar to be available by the end of April.

Staff have drafted a calendar that must be approved by unions and the Portland School Board.

 

Important tentative dates are:

• First day of school: Sept. 6, 2011
• Thanksgiving:  Nov. 24-25, 2011
• December break: Dec. 19, 2011-Jan. 3, 2012
• Spring break: March 16-23, 2012
• Last day of school: June 13 or 14, 2012

Bonus Time

It’s important to celebrate the little things. I get reminded of that nearly every day at this point in my life. Things like:

• How good it feels to clean out your ears with a warm Q-tip
• The magic of Potato/Leek Soup
• Coming home to the greeting of a dog
• Clothes that fit

This is a ‘living simply’ time for me, and one that increasingly is becoming a life choice more than a necessity. It’s a fitting line of thinking for me in this Ayyami-Ha season. A new beginning. Keep only what you need and only that which works. Jettison the rest and revel in the freedom and bliss that comes from simplicity. Let that freedom create the ability to respond to magical moments in life.

One of those magical moments happened this weekend, in fact. M had a date with her Mother to see the OBT professional dancers perform on Saturday. That left R with nothing to do on a Saturday night. I was informed that he could spend the evening with me if he wished; he wished; and so did I.

Now, full disclosure: I had planned to spend some evening time with my friend, D. This was, after all, my “weekend off”, so I’d planned some clothes shopping*, a trip to IKEA**, and a Saturday evening meal with D.

With the opportunity to spend time with R popping up short-notice, it was easy to adjust. D thought roller skating would be a lot of fun, so we merged everything. R tagged along on our meal / D tagged along on the impromptu boys night out, and I got to spend great social time with two delightfully witty and intelligent human beings. To watch R’s emerging mastery of sarcasm go toe-to-toe with D’s mastery of irony as a comedy device, was really cool. While I certainly could have joined in, it was much more fun to keep quiet, let them spar, and enjoy their fun. It was really, really cool for me to watch the two of them get acquainted. My son will do well in the world as he grows up. I can rest easy in that.

It was an Ayyami-Ha night. Celebrations all around, in ways that match the style of the individual members of the family.  Simple. Joyous. Freeing.

It was Bonus Time. And such a bonus it was. A “Bounty of Bonus” one might say…

Throughout this week, the kids and I will consult on a plan for our weekend together coming up. I wonder what else we can incorporate for Bonus Time?

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* I’m slowly gathering up some ‘skinny’ clothes to fit my svelter self. Right now, I’m wearing size 30 waists where I used to wear 33 waists. Needless to say, the old pants are pretty saggy when they’re 3-4 inches too big in the waist.

** My first trip to IKEA for me. Overwhelming without a guide.