Friday, February 16, 2018Out of Words
It probably seemed like an innocent enough idea. Why would a frog be worried about leaving the confines of the pond? There's plenty of water EVERYWHERE since it's been raining and raining and raining, so really it was a safe idea.
Or so it seemed.
The little frog that thought it would be fine to venture away from its home made it all the way across the patio and to the driveway before things went bad. I don't know for sure what happened, but I'm guessing it was just too cold outside. I found the little frog dead, just a few inches in front of where I normally park.
And, you know, I think in this case it makes sense to lay the responsibility at the feet of the frog. We can't ban cold weather and, really, it's a bad idea to venture out in February if you're cold-blooded and stuff.
But those kids.
I spent a good ten minutes staring at the damn dead frog and considering personal responsibility. Those kids had every reason to leave their homes. They were exactly where they belonged and they should have been safe. They deserved to be safe.
In this case, the "personal responsibility" is on the rest of us. Each and every one of us is personally responsible for fixing this mess.
Double-Edged Art Projects
I genuinely enjoy a good crafty project here and there, but there's something about "required" craft projects with real deadlines that makes me go nooooooope. I extra noooooooooope when the days are fullest, which they all are lately. I've been running day and night and day again and it will be that way for a few more months. And then I'll collapse into a pile of uselessness.
I'm really super looking forward to it.
In the meantime, I'm doing most excellent things like remembering Valentine's Day at 11:00 the night before. GREAT TIMING, MOM. That's how you make sure your kid doesn't have to do any of the work, which whatever. Mila is a super good "helper" but those quotes are very deserved. It's for the best that she was asleep long before I stuffed tiny little cards into envelopes and wrote names on them all.
Like, for real. All of them. Apparently I let Mila pick out Valentines that had a quantity of 16 in the box while she has 19 kids in her class. THAT is a great thing to figure out at nearly midnight. Fortunately, I never know what to do with the extras when there's like 400 cards in a box. That's a thing, you know. Valentine's boxes either have 16 cards in them or 400. There's never a quantity that actually makes sense. So one of the years when there were 400 cards in the box, I happened to stick the extras in a bag and place them on a high shelf in a closet.
AND I REMEMBERED THAT THEY WERE THERE!
That's the real victory. Somehow I remembered that they were there at a time when I needed them. It might only be because I desperately didn't want to run to a store and I DEFINITELY didn't want to make a few. Still a win.
So once I finally finished the cards and candy portion of the festivities, it occurred to me that I hadn't seen boxes in Mila's classroom. Apparently Western PA doesn't believe in having kids decorate boxes during school hours, which, COME ON. I grew up decorating an oversized envelope or box as an art activity every year. But nope, that's a home activity around here.
Normally I play along.
Normally I'd happily decorate a box.
But, uh, Alexis. Alexis is officially too old for holiday parties at school and she didn't need a box and waaaaaaah! Meh baaaayyybbeeeee. SHE'S BIG NOW. Without Alexis needing one, it seemed like a lot to do one just for Mila (Alexis has made her own since kindergarten because I RULE at teaching independence when it will save me from having to be competent).
So I didn't.
I grabbed an empty shopping bag out of the pantry and I sent that sucker to school.
Two things happened:
1. I learned that I was one step ahead of at least one mom. While the classroom was magically filled with fancy homemade boxes, there was a shopping bag in the cubby next to Mila's. A Victoria's Secret bag.
I guess you could say that since it was pink and Victoria's Secret has things for people who like each other THAT way, it was perfect. But I'm going to say that far more 3-year olds understand the love that is Target than they do Victoria's Secret. So, point me!
2. Aw, hell, Mila noticed. She spent the entire ride home from school telling me about everyone's cool boxes and how much she wanted one, too. She couldn't decide if the dinosaur egg one or the robot was her favorite, but maybe we could make a puppy one? With a soft tail?
If days were just a little less full right now, we would have made a box just so I could make up for not pulling things together. Instead, I'm going to have that twinge of guilt as I simultaneously celebrate that I didn't lose hours of my life to decorating a silly box for preschool.
