The Halloween party went off pretty flawlessly in spite of the fact that we did only about half the things we planned. It is yet another bit of support for my party tossing philosophy of keepin' it simple never fails. We have "parties" frequently. Sometimes practically no one comes; sometimes every darn person I invite shows up, and the house is literally teeming with people. Always, it's wonderful.
This party was an "in between party": about half the people we invited showed up. Bobbing for apples did not happen, but foam swords in the back yard and interesting parallel play among the medium kids (8-10) and the babies (4-6) happened like magic in the play room. I held myself back from interrupting their spontaneous, organic, unstructured fun to force our scheduled structured fun on them. They had fun and left happy. YAY!
I was unable to procure creepy goodies, something I really wanted to make, and didn't have many snacks on hand. Throughout the day (little kids were at my house from 11 a.m. til about 4 or so, and big kids came and went across that time right up until 11 p.m.), as the little kids wanted something to nibble on or something, I would just hand them a banana or an apple, and that went over fine. Also, I had no punch or juice, so I just gave them water. I think that went over so well only because we drink from jars in our house, so they were fascinated by the fact that they were drinking from duck sauce jars, jam jars, salsa jars, etc. And the different shapes and sizes let them sort of compare how much they had and talk about capacity -- ah -- science? math? something. They had fun. haha.
Later, the big kids and grown ups came and pumpkin carving, yummy tea drinking, tasty wine imbibing, pumpkin seed toasting, pizza eating, and general superchill goodtimes happened. Almost all courtesy of one sweet boy named Shawn, who was an amazing partner in making a lovely night lovelier!
More later -- my time to get to work timer just rang.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
What the heck is this all about?
So, one of my friends suggested to me, since I often post little stories about my kids on fb or other little sites, that I should blog about it. So here goes. A stumbly try. I do think there is a place for the kind of blog I can imagine this shaping into, but it will likely be a slow, but not painful, process of me getting to it when I can.
But a bit about why I do think this will be useful and important for me and why it could be significant -- worth a glance at least -- for others: I'm a single mama. I have a small tribe of kids (six of them). I have a full time job. I'm lucky that my kids' dad, Joey, is across town but in the picture. Joey and I share a strange, strained, sometimes amazingly easy and sometimes exceedingly fragile peace. But I know that I'm lucky to have his help. However, things are nuts, man. Tendin' the tribe is an exhilarating and exhausting charge.
This site is, more than anything, a place for me to sort things, reflect on things, save things, plan things, and work things out. In the process, I will, through keeping this blog, create a space where many of the things I need to tend to are in one place. Also, I will be storing all those little stories in one place, and creating a chronicle of my stumbling toward competence as a human.
How might this serve others? Well, if nothing else, there will be some funny stories on it. HA! But I know for darn sure that in my efforts to find blogs and other sites to help me manage time, come up with fun stuff to do with the kidlets, etc., I was often more overwhelmed at how amazing the parents doing this stuff seem. They seem to have boundless energy, time, and material resources. I have all of those things too, but all are far from boundless, and some are severely limited. So I can't teach anyone anything about how to make better cookies, play more intellectually stimulating games, clean a house, plan a budget, create a weekly menu, or manage time, but I'll happily put my bumbly self before anyone who reads this and wants to watch me chronicle my attempts to learn these things.
One more way it may serve others is through the whole "insight" thing. There are a million misconceptions about single parents and a world that frequently meets us with a sneer. And unfortunately, most of us, myself included dedicate so much time and energy to tending to our business (kids, cleaning, cooking, working, squeezing in a night out, etc.) that we don't have time to undertake the kind of endeavor that would give us a voice in the world, one that would call for a bit more compassion and a lot less sneering.
But a bit about why I do think this will be useful and important for me and why it could be significant -- worth a glance at least -- for others: I'm a single mama. I have a small tribe of kids (six of them). I have a full time job. I'm lucky that my kids' dad, Joey, is across town but in the picture. Joey and I share a strange, strained, sometimes amazingly easy and sometimes exceedingly fragile peace. But I know that I'm lucky to have his help. However, things are nuts, man. Tendin' the tribe is an exhilarating and exhausting charge.
This site is, more than anything, a place for me to sort things, reflect on things, save things, plan things, and work things out. In the process, I will, through keeping this blog, create a space where many of the things I need to tend to are in one place. Also, I will be storing all those little stories in one place, and creating a chronicle of my stumbling toward competence as a human.
How might this serve others? Well, if nothing else, there will be some funny stories on it. HA! But I know for darn sure that in my efforts to find blogs and other sites to help me manage time, come up with fun stuff to do with the kidlets, etc., I was often more overwhelmed at how amazing the parents doing this stuff seem. They seem to have boundless energy, time, and material resources. I have all of those things too, but all are far from boundless, and some are severely limited. So I can't teach anyone anything about how to make better cookies, play more intellectually stimulating games, clean a house, plan a budget, create a weekly menu, or manage time, but I'll happily put my bumbly self before anyone who reads this and wants to watch me chronicle my attempts to learn these things.
One more way it may serve others is through the whole "insight" thing. There are a million misconceptions about single parents and a world that frequently meets us with a sneer. And unfortunately, most of us, myself included dedicate so much time and energy to tending to our business (kids, cleaning, cooking, working, squeezing in a night out, etc.) that we don't have time to undertake the kind of endeavor that would give us a voice in the world, one that would call for a bit more compassion and a lot less sneering.
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