Well we’re off to the races with the 2024-2025 school year. And a new month. Whew. It was a pretty uneventful first week. The kids went to school. They came home. Extracurricular activities haven’t yet started, and I’m not yet working on a show, so it does feel like we are easing into the new school year.
Right out of the gate, though, the 7th grader’s middle school had their Back to School Night on Thursday. It felt a little soon to have a Back To School Night the fourth day of school, but oh well. I was glad of a chance to go – aside from the school plays and some early pick ups in the office, I haven’t really seen her middle school yet; last year it seemed as if every school event was on an evening when I had to work. At Back to School Night, the majority of the evening had the parents/guardians going to their student’s classes in order, with six minutes in each class and four minutes to get from one period to the other. Each student has seven classes a day, plus advisory and homeroom- down hallways, up stairs, from one end of school to another. I don’t know how the 12 year old manages this every day. I was exhausted by the end of the evening, but it was nice to put faces to the teachers and get a sense of what school is like for her. Last year I found middle school to be a huge black hole – the kid went to school. There were weekly newsletters that came home – all good things though. Once in a while a message from the Principal about an incident, or a form for me to sign. A few times a year, I saw grades. I suppose middle school is just one more step to independence and not knowing what my kid is up to.
My mother and my aunt were still in town most of last week. They had gone to New York City, but came back mid week. We did some less obvious touristy things. One day we went downtown to the Kennedy Center. We didn’t see a show or anything, but it’s just a beautiful building to walk around, and we had lunch at the Cafe on the roof, where there is a wonderful view of DC. There is an exhibit on JFK and his role in the arts. On that day, since we were already in the city, we went to the Portrait Gallery. I mainly picked the Portrait Gallery because it’s an easy metro ride and also I love sitting in its courtyard. There was an exhibit on Hollywood portraits, what I really liked seeing.
One of the portraits was of Merle Oberon, which I found fascinating because I didn’t realize that she was half South Asian. The blurb next to her portrait talked about how she had to hide her mixed race identity because of discrimination. I think of how I have half Asian kids and how it’s kind of no big deal because being mixed race a) is kind of a meaningless term – what is “race” anyhow? and b) is so common these days. I once read a statistic that the majority of kids will be of mixed race in the next ten years. (Or something like that – don’t quote me – it’s one of those statistics that’s stuck in my head, but I don’t remember where I heard it.) So thinking about being a mixed race person when it wasn’t so common and even considered scandalous is one of those things that I find really interesting to read about.
The day after that, we went to The National Museum of Health and Medicine, which is just a mile from my house. It’s a collection of body parts and medical equipment and photos and artifacts and such things related to the human body and how it can fall apart. The collection was started during the Civil War when doctors were encouraged to keep specimens of body parts and what not for research purposes. The most famous thing about it is that it has the bullet that killed Lincoln, along with some of his hair and the bloody cuffs of the doctor who operated on him. I didn’t realize this, but it also has a piece of President Garfield’s spine as well, from when he was shot. I kind of feel like you need to have a very strong stomach and sense of curiosity to go to this museum. It was especially interesting to go to the museum with my aunt who is a physician. She reminisced about her medical school days and pointed out the body parts and organs that were on display and told me all about what they did. The lady is amazing – she is 77 years old and still sees patients three days a week.
The last day of my Aunt’s visit, we took a trip to Longwood Gardens. What a beautiful riot of summer colour! I’m always glad for a visit to Longwood Gardens.
Labor Day Monday I took the three kids to the Renaissance Festival. I hadn’t originally planned to go over Labor Day weekend, but on Sunday our friends told us they were planning on going the next day, so it seemed like as good a time as any to go. Plus our other weekends in September were going to be full of kids’ activities. We had a great time. We saw the jousting (twice!), fencing shows, acrobats, Shakespeare parodies. We listened to loud feet-stomping, heart expanding music, ate turkey legs, reveled in people watching. The weather was gorgeous – warm and sunny with a breeze at just the right moments. The kids got sticky with melted ice cream and dirty with playground mulch. We laughed and wandered and had an all around great time.
I think I did really well pacing our day. Once I (like Oliver Burkeman says) get used to the idea that you can’t see everything, then I think I could enjoy the things I did see without the sense that I should be somewhere else. I had each of the kids pick one thing they really wanted to do, and then planned around that. The 12 year old wanted to eat fried food, the 7 year old wanted to see the jousting, the 4 year old wanted to ride the pony, I wanted to see shows and laugh. So I looked at the schedule and map and plotted it out as soon as I got there. I picked four shows to anchor our day – 12 noon jousting, 2:00pm Death Scenes from Shakespeare, 3:30p Vixes En Garde, 5pm Piper Jones show. Then in and around we ate turkey legs (side note – these have gotten really expensive! They are now $12 a pop. I guess I’m okay with it, but it’s a little alarming), went to the pirate playground, shopped, and went on the Pony ride. It also helped that we met up with our friends who had three kids, so the older kids could take off together while I stuck with the little kids.
Coordinating with my friends was a little difficult at first because with all the mass of humanity at the Ren Faire – and it was very crowded – my cell phone couldn’t find a way to make calls or send text messages. I think next time I need a better, more concrete plan ahead of time of where to meet people. One we met up with my friends, though, I really enjoyed Ren Fairing with friends.
Oh, and the one thing I was the MOST excited about – they’ve put in water bottle fillers at our Ren Faire! For years, I’ve carted so four full Nalgenes with me to the Faire, because I’m too cheap to pay for water at the Faire. Well this year, there were three water bottle fillers (labelled “drinking water from the well”) Yay. Ren Faire gets better and better every year!
Inspirational Thought of the week: We are due for a huge decluttering effort at our house, so I’ve been listening to Decluttering and organizational podcasts for inspiration. Last week I was listening to A Slob Comes Clean’s episode called “How to Get Motivated” and she said
“There is no way to fail at better.”
Whoa. Her point is that even throwing away one piece of trash makes things better, and as long as you are moving towards “better” no matter how small the steps, you are not failing. I have to remember that when the prospect of decluttering (or anything large) feels overwhelming.
Kid Quote of the Moment:
The 7 year old can be a bit of a stubborn grumpy bear. But when something goes the way he wants it too, his delight is unparalleled. His latest catch phrase when something goes well – “Perfection wins again!”
I have no idea where he got that phrase from, but it makes me really happy every time he says it.
Grateful For:
-School Buses and school bus drivers. Amazingly, the school bus was on time in both the morning and the afternoon last week. Well except for one day when the bus broke down and they had to get a replacement. Even so, the bus ended up only being thirty minutes late, which seems pretty efficient given that they had to go find a whole other bus and driver. So I’m grateful for the school bus and school bud driver that takes my kid to school safely.
-A nice visit with my mom and my aunt. I don’t get to see my aunt very often, so it was lovely to have her stay with us for five nights.
– The kids’ piano teacher. A few weeks ago, while out for a walk with my 12 year old, she said to me, “You know what? Piano is my favorite extracurricular activity!” This made me really happy to hear because she loves music so much but there were a couple of years where we fought a lot about lessons and practicing. I give a lot of credit for this to her piano teacher who is so patient and positive with her but also challenges her.
Looking Forward To:
-Lunch with a friend. I start working on a show in October, with some hours here and there the next couple of weeks, so I want to schedule some fun social weekday things in September before my schedule makes that difficult.
-Planning our trip to Malaysia. On the way to Longwood Gardens, we listened to some podcasts about travel to Malaysia. (I like listening to destination/ travel podcasts for trip inspiration.) It really got me eager to start researching and planning the activities we will do with our four days there. It seems like all the really beautiful beaches are a bit farther than we want to go with just four days, so we’ll probably just stay in Kuala Lumpur.
-September declutter-palooza! As I mentioned above, we’ve decided that September will be a big month for decluttering since I will have a lighter schedule and am home more. The main areas are the attic and the current toy room, which needs to be cleaned out so we can put the guest bed in there and make the guest bedroom into the 12 year old’s room. The 12 year old currently shares a room with her two younger siblings. It’s partly because I can’t wrap my brain around setting up a room for her (so many logistics! Need to buy new furniture!), also partly because I like having all the kids on the same floor as us and giving the 12 year old her own room would mean putting her downstairs. Anyhow – I know I need to just get over this because a 12 year old should not have to share a room with her 7 year old brother and 5 year old sister if she can help it. (Although part of me thinks – my father shared a room with 7 siblings. But he lived in rural Taiwan. Life was different… Everyone looks at me like I’m a horrible mother when I tell them my 12 year old still shares a room with her siblings.) Anyhow, I’m excited about/dreading declutter-palooza. I know our house will be a lot better once we go through things and purge and shift. But… so much work, and I get attached to things. Hence listening to decluttering podcasts for inspiration. Maybe I should document the efforts here for some accountability.
What We Ate:
Monday: Stir fried eggplant with black bean sauce and tofu.
Tuesday: Tortellini with sausage. Fruit on the side.
Wednesday: Grilled chicken drumsticks and cucumber and cabbage noodle salad with black bean sauce.
Thursday: Pasta Salad. This was a kitchen sink meal. We came home on the late side and I didn’t have anything planned, so I chopped a bunch of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, and threw them in a bowl with some cooked pasta and canned tuna. Added a red wine vinegar vinegrette. It was much tastier than I thought it would be.
Friday: Pizza (the Husband made) and Young Woman and the Sea, a recent film about Trudy Ederle, who in 1926 was the first woman to swim the English Channel, and she did it faster than any of the men before her. Disney sport movies are always predictably sentimental, and I am a sucker for that. I really liked this movie. I thought the story was inspiring and performances delightful to watch.
Saturday: Dinner out at The Olive Lounge after our trip to Longwood Gardens. I had a really delicious truffle pasta.
Sunday: Burgers and hot dogs and grilled zucchini. We had some friends over to grill- one of those super casual impromptu gatherings that you can have when you know your friends won’t judge you for not cleaning.
Monday: Grilled cheese and fruit. We didn’t get hime from the Ren Faire until almost 8pm so dinner was something quick and easy.
Onward to September! How was your holiday weekend? Have you ever had to share a room with a sibling? Pluses or minuses?
Great update, thanks Diane!!
My kid quote of the week from Rainn my 4 year old: “mom, you are cute, you are not ugly.” lol where he came up with that I have no clue.
The fair looked so fun, happy you had that experience! Where do you get your “events” from? Facebook? Word of mouth?
Lastly, this week. Holy cow I am TIRED. Our first week back to school, for me, and my kids. Two different districts. I can’t wait to get to the weekend.
I would love to cheer you on when you do your declutter palooza!
what an adorable thing for R to say!
I find events in all sorts of ways – email newsletters mostly – the Parks newsletter, the County Rec newsletter, the Library newsletter, etc. various museums – there’s a really great website called Kid Friendly DC that lists all sorts of events. And some things, I’ve been to in the past so I try to remember and check the calendar to see if the event is happening again. I’m also lucky that there’s always so much free stuff going on in the DC area.
Yay for first week of school!
I had a friend who shared a room with her sister and I was so jealous! Then again, at age 12 she probably wants her own space, so I get it.
It’s funny, the “mixed race” thing. My family all came from Saskatchewan and my mom told me that, back in the day, a “mixed marriage” was when a Catholic and a Lutheran got married. SO SCANDALOUS. I do agree it’s an outdated term for sure, but I always think of the Catholic/ Lutheran thing and laugh.
Oh yes! Catholics and Lutherans mixing!!!!
My in laws were mixed Catholic and Lutheran too. But then my FIL didn’t much go to church, and so the kids ended up being raised Catholic.
You always do such great things with visiting guests! If I come to DC, I’ll be asking for a private tour 😉
I LOVE decluttering, but I understand most people don’t find it overly fun. But it can feel so, so daunting. Maybe set your 12-year-old up in charge of moving some things over to the guest room and taking some ownership over the chores associated with moving spaces? She might love it (my 13-year old would definitely want to do most of a room switch independently).
Today was our first day of school so the house seems strangely quiet. I’m not complaining…
If you come to DC I would definitely take you around town!
I like that idea of having the 12 year old take charge of some of the move.
Hope everyone had a great first day of school!
I shared a roommate with my sister until we were teens. It was fine, honestly. I can see why teens might want more privacy, though.
I also hate decluttering. I just want to dust and vacuum and scrub the toilet and be done cleaning. But it’s easier to do the basic chores if there’s less stuff to deal with, so sometimes decluttering must get done.
Scrubbing the toilet is actually one of my favorite chores – so satisfying! But yeah decluttering – too many decisions to be made! It’s exhausting.
Your aunt sounds like such a trailblazer – and she’s still seeing patients 3 times/week at age 77! Wow! She must really love what she does.
I shared a bedroom with my older sister for a number of years. I can’t remember when we each got our own room, maybe when she was around 14 or 15? I think I moved in with her when I was 7. It was so so sharing a room… We did not get along very well as we are like oil and water. My boys would like to share a room – or they like the idea of it. The bed we got for Taco has a trundle but we haven’t bought the mattress for it yet. I keep telling them they can have sleepovers on weekends eventually but not until they are better at going to bed (bedtime has been terrible this week especially!).
Yeah, my aunt is kind of amazing. She’s had a soap opera of a life and I’m glad she’s in a better place now.
I think my two little kids like sharing a room – it’s really sweet how they like to talk to each other and play together in the morning when they wake up.
A weekend sleepover sounds really sweet for your boys!
We always had 2 bedroom houses, and my mom was a single mom, so until he moved out, my brother had his own room and I shared with my mom. It was fine, but not common, I don’t think.
My husband’s ancestry is South Asian (Indian) and mine is European (mostly English, some French). When my daughter was in pre-school she only had one close friend who was not mixed race, and she was black. It’s not the big deal it used to be, thankfully!
That medical museum would be a hard no from me. I’m far too squeamish. Longwood Gardens, I can get behind. My BFF lives in Chadds Ford, which isn’t too far, and we went there when our kids were small. It’s beautiful.
I do wonder when the two little kids should stop sharing a room since one is a boy and one is a girl. It’s not like we don’t have the bedrooms- it’s just that the rooms are all used for something else right now!
There are definitely parts of the medical museum that I don’t linger over…
That will be nice for the older kid to have her own room. My brother and I shared until we were about 9 or 10 – we were very close in age and around that time, my parents felt like we needed our own space. Hopefully you can get the guest room all squared away so she can get all settled in!
oooh that’s good to know that you shared until 9 or ten. I do wonder about the two younger kids sharing a room since they are boy and girl. But I can’t very well make the two girls share a room – they are 12 and 4 – and give the boy his own room. It feels like it would be upholding the patriarchy to do that.