“I’m that … and that … and that …”

So, after my last post, my psychology-trained sister probingly asked in the comments section: “What I want to know is.... when do YOU say "I'm that!" ?? :)”

And it got me thinking …

about how, when I see glossy homeschooling magazines with neat schoolrooms and patient, smiling moms teaching their scrubbed, obedient, happy children … “I’m that”

and when I browse Pinterest and see all the amazingly creative Martha-Stewartish projects … “I’m that!”

and when I’m looking up new recipes and watching cooking shows … “I’m that”

And when I see neatly organized closets, shelves, homes … “I’m that”.

and when we watch Maria VonTrapp belting it out in the hills and serenading all the happy children ,,, “I’m that.”

and … oh, what the heck. When we watched “First Position” last week with all the amazing dancers … “I’m that, too!”

(Thanks to Erica for sparking this idea when we read Aunt Kelly’s question and she immediately came up with the idea of the “Homeschooling Mom ‘I’m that;”. :-)

“I’m That”

Like all kids, ours love to pretend. One of the games they like to play goes something like this: we’ll be watching a video or reading a book or driving down the road and the kids will see something cute, inspiring, impressive, amazing, etc. and someone usually calls out “I’m that horse!” or “I’m that dancer!” or I’m that kitten!” You can just see their imaginations working when they play this game.

Claire the Cute Kitten

Brooke the Majestic Horse

Sarah the Graceful Ballerina

And of course, now that we have added boys to our family mix, the game is being played out in new and unexpected ways. The other day, we were driving down the highway and Claire excitedly yells “Grant, look!  A cement mixer!” And he says “I’m that!” I’m pretty sure none of our girls ever imagined themselves as a cement mixer, but I know Grant would make the cutest cement mixer ever.  :-D

Grant the Manly Cement Mixer

“The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey” by Susan Wojciechowski

This book is a modern classic and an annual read-aloud at our house. (I love how Grant is brushing Claire’s hair. Not sure why he decided to do that, but she obviously doesn’t mind. :-)

“The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss

 

I really didn’t pose them for this; it was taken right after an impromptu twirling session.Girls will do that. One of the nice things about it is, they will make sure their hair looks reasonably neat when they dance, which makes for a great spontaneous picture like this. :-)

Reading, reading, reading

Who doesn’t like to see anyone, young or old, so engrossed in a book they’re oblivious to everything going on around them? Even when we’re all at Mom and Dad’s, which makes a for a very full house with lots of noise, you can always count on finding someone, somewhere in the house reading a book.

Thanksgiving 2012

The years and holidays can start to blur together over time, but I’m sure Thanksgiving 2012 will stand out in our minds because it was the year of The Crash. In the week leading up to Thanksgiving, there was a flurry of emails between me and the other siblings while we divvied up the dishes and duties that Mom and Dad usually take care of.

Kelly, Heather and I went down to Mom and Dad’s on Monday so we could get the house ready. We did all the cleaning and set the tables with Mom and Dad’s best dishes and silverware. Mom spent most of the time trying to get comfortable. She got up several times and hobbled into the kitchen and also tried out a different chair for the first time since she got home from the hospital. After lunch, I started a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, since Dad had almost finished off the batch that he had in the freezer. Yes, this is a funny detail about the day of the accident I hadn’t heard of yet. Apparently, Dad had baked chocolate chip cookies the night before the accident. The next evening at the hospital, he gave Heather a list of things to do back at the house. One of the things he mentioned was the chocolate chip cookies – he wanted her to make sure she put those in the freezer. :-D  Yep, that’s my Dad; never waste dessert! We finished up around 3:00 and spent the next hour or so chatting.

Mick offered to take on the turkey roasting duties and Heather made Mom’s traditional stuffing. All of us girls made more pies than we usually do. I made 2 pecan and my first ever pumpkin pie. Mick decided to grill one of the turkeys and we roasted the other one in the oven. There’s nothing like the smell of roasted turkey to make the house feel like Thanksgiving!

Meanwhile, the girls helped gather up all the pilgrim costume pieces we could find and we went over the play. Who would’ve thought when Kelly wrote that play out 10 years ago that we would still be doing it all these years later! 

We’ve had an unusually warm November, and Thanksgiving day was sunny and in the mid-60s. After we ate the meal, Mick, Glenn, Dad, Steve, Chuck and Ron took 10 of the kids over to neighbor Dave Higgins’ place to do some skeet shooting. Dad wasn’t going to go at first because he felt like he should be there for Mom, but we convinced him to go with the others. Since we stayed at the house, I sent our camera and camcorder with the girls and they ended up getting quite a good bit of footage of the adventure.

 

Later, we pitted the guys against the girls for a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. Let’s see: I learned that Denver backed out of hosting the Winter Olympics in 1976, roller derby was invented in the 1920s and 30s, the first English play written for children was “Peter Pan” and the word “feedback” is the smallest English word you can form with the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F! Unfortunately, because it was getting late, we had to stop before the game was over, so we weren’t able to determine a winner, but let’s just say that after a shaky start, the ladies came roaring back!  ;-)

 

We finished up the evening with an impromptu mini piano concert by Chuck, who didn’t bring his guitar again because he “doesn’t have enough time to practice.” Harumph!

The day after Thanksgiving, I was looking through the pictures and video – most of which the girls got – and decided to make a movie. It ended up being more elaborate than I had in mind at first, but we’re happy with the finished product: it gives a good overview of what a wonderful day it was!

Grant, a/k/a “The Happy Wanderer”

 

All families have stories that are so entertaining and loved they are often retold, enjoyed and chuckled over, even though everyone has heard the story so many times. An interesting thing with time, though, is its ability to soften our memories and take the hard edges off of the details. One story we always enjoyed hearing my Grandma tell was about our funny, energetic Uncle Rob. When he was a toddler, the family lived in the hills of Brown County. It seems one day Uncle Rob turned up missing. Just behind the family’s log cabin was a deep ravine filled with trees. That is where Grandma found Uncle Rob, wandering around in his diaper. After that, for a while, she actually put a cow bell around his neck so she could keep track of him!

That is the extent of the story as we know it, and it has always made us all chuckle at the thought of Uncle Rob taking off for the woods in his diaper, and later walking around with a cow bell around his neck. (And I have to wonder how long a 2-year-old would keep a cow bell around his neck? I have a 2-year-old, and I’m thinking he might enjoy that for about 2.3 seconds.) But I suppose if we somehow could have heard Grandma tell this story right after it happened, it would have had a few more frightening details: like how Grandma felt when she realized her two-year-old was missing, how long she searched for him and how frantic she must’ve felt the whole time, and what kind of shape he was in. If he was at the bottom of the ravine in only a diaper, was he scratched up? I can’t imagine a 2-year-old making it down to the bottom of a ravine without falling once or twice, maybe even rolling some. But time, with its buffering, softening effects, has turned it all into a quaint, charming family tale, complete with a happy ending.

So, why do I choose to share the story I’m about to share, when it’s been less than 24 hours after it all took place? Well, because there is a happy ending here also: Grant is quietly sleeping in his bed as I type, and I praise God for that (for the fact that’s he’s safe in his bed and that he’s asleep!) Also because, as scary as it was at the time, we are already sharing a few grateful chuckles about it all, even a few hours after the fact. And I just know this story will be repeated to Grant when he is older – he might even have a dim memory of it – and I want to get the facts straight while they’re still fresh in our memories.

So, I’m at work on Friday afternoon for a few short hours. Suddenly, I notice Alix is on Skype and is sending what I mistakenly think is some Skype messages for me. When I pull up the Skype window, I was greeted with this exchange between Courtney and Alix:

worley: I have an amazing story to tell you.

Alix Orr: ok

worley: Rachel is babysitting and a man in a white pickup pulled up to the door and knocked and we didn't answer cause duh we're the only ones home.

Alix Orr: right

worley: Soooo...we suddenly realized we couldn't locate Grant

Alix Orr: !!!!

worley: and Rachel thought maybe the man was going to tell us that he was in the next county (!)

Alix Orr: !

worley: So Rachel and I ran outside to look for him

Alix Orr: so the man in the white pickup had driven away by now?

worley: yes

worley: and Rachel saw him walking up the road WAY far away

Alix Orr: aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

worley: and since Rach wasn't wearing shoes and I was I met him further down the creek and asked him if anyone said something to him. He said yes

Alix Orr: *choke*

worley: I asked Grant what the man's car color was and he said "white" (btw Grant was shirtless)

Alix Orr: *chokes harder*

worley: and I asked him what the man said. He said "You should probably go home now buddy" and I asked him what kind of car it was and it was a pickup. So about five minutes later Sarah goes "Rachel, who's here?" Long story short it was a policeman.

At this point, their exchange ended.  Imagine my reaction: blood pressure and temperature rising as each sentence appeared on the screen. But in retrospect, this might have been a better way for me to find out about it than an excited, breathless phone call. I quickly ran through the facts in my head and started calming down when I realized: (1) I hadn’t gotten a phone call; (2) they obviously had Grant safe at the house at this point; and (3) it was already considered an “amazing” story and was shared via Skype with Alix.

When I got home, the girls filled me in on the details. Rachel was busy laying Trent down for a nap when the man in the white truck knocked on the door. By the time she got downstairs, he was getting back in his truck (she wouldn’t have opened the door, anyway). A few minutes later, they realized Grant was missing. Once they had him back, they asked him where he was going. He said he was going down to “watch the combine” (they were harvesting corn in the field opposite the next road down). Jack and Samson were with him and in spite of everything, I thought what a cute picture that would’ve had made: Grant walking down our gravel road, Samson and Jack on either side of him, to watch the combine. If only I could’ve just been a few feet behind him the whole time … Anyway a few minutes later, Sarah called out “Who’s here?” and Rachel looked out and saw the sheriff walking up the steps and said “Oh super! A policeman!!”  Apparently the man (saint? guardian angel?) in the white truck had called the sheriff’s office and told them about Grant. When the officer got to the house, he got out his radio and said something to the effect of “It’s OK, guys, we found the boy.” (!) Then he asked the girls a few questions (How old are you? Will your parents be gone much longer?), then he talked to Grant about not wandering off again and ended the conversation with a high five. This part of the story kind of makes me chuckle because, like most little boys, Grant is fascinated by policemen. A few weeks ago, he told me he really wanted to “give a policeman ‘five.’” I thought it was cute at the time, but never thought it would be played out like this!

After church yesterday, Mick was telling Kelly about it and when he got done, she asked Grant “Where were you going?”  His answer: “I was very, very close to far away.”