Making the Best of Things

J is in DC again this week.  It has been a tough time for me.  I guess I haven’t felt completely “right” ever since the Mother’s Day program at my son’s school.  The whole quick march of time, kids growing up, me growing old thing.  Ugh!  It’s overwhelming to think that I pretty much have a first grader and another son who will be entering his last year of preschool. J taking off for a week just compounded my crumminess.  Pile on loneliness and I feel even lower.

On Wednesday Cutie Pie refused to take a nap at his normal nap time.  I figured he could probably hang until bed time but I was wrong.  I found him soundly slumbering in our living room when I emerged from my shower after teaching Zumba.  I had big plans to keep really busy so I would not dwell on the fact that I missed J so much.  I wanted to take the boys for pizza at our favorite little spot on the beach.  When I couldn’t rouse Cutie Pie from his nap, Wildman and I chose to order a pizza instead.

Wildman and I went out front to enjoy the unusually cool temperatures we’ve recently experienced while we waited for the delivery guy to bring dinner.  I used the stop watch app on my iphone to time his bike ride down to the corner and back.  I also timed his sprint from our front yard to our neighbor’s tree and back.  We played a bit of hopscotch on the sidewalk too.  He wanted me to draw the game squares up to number 20.  I told him I’d number squares until my chalk ran out.  I got up to number 14.  He did the rest up to 20.  Cutie Pie continued to saw logs…

Our pizza finally arrived after half an hour or so.  Wildman suggested eating on  his playground clubhouse platform which I thought was a terrific idea.  The cool breeze, setting sun and sweet little boy company made for a perfect dining experience.  Cutie Pie would not budge from his place of rest on the leather chair…

We even brought out some peanuts to put on the fence for the squirrels.

Eventually Cutie Pie woke up, the sun sank low and we retreated indoors for baths, books and bed time.  I admit that I’m still in a kind of funk, an emotional mess, if you will, but those precious moments with Wildman made me realize just how wonderful life is.  The simple pleasures of a shared hopscotch game and a slice of pizza in the spring breeze are what life is all about.

I am blessed.

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Godspeed Endeavour

Second to last shuttle launch on a glorious spring morning on Florida’s Space Coast!

The shell-seekers got to be late to preschool today.  I hope they remember going to the beach to see the shuttle launch.  We are so lucky to live here to witness history.

Preschool Museum of Art

Cutie Pie’s preschool art and music program was this morning.  In true creative style, the mom who usually plans the event outdid herself.  It was truly a thing to behold.  I have lots of pictures to share but they simply don’t do justice to how cool it was.  I don’t know what could possibly be done to top it next year…

The show began at 11 AM in the church sanctuary where the children assembled to sing lots of fun springtime/Mother’s Day/Father’s Day songs.

The preciousness was almost too much to handle.  *sigh*

After the music portion was complete we met up with Cutie Pie at his class table in the fellowship hall.  There waiting for us were lots of fun Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts that Cutie Pie had made.

We made our way out into the hall to see Cutie Pie’s class art display in the art gallery.  Each class had an 8′ table and an 8′ x 4′ board on which to display all of their artistic treasures.  It was amazing to see what all of the children have made over the school year!

This year, the food was set up outside on the breezeway between the chapel and the church administration building.  Each snack was staged to look like famous paintings.  Ingenious, I say!

There was a photo op for the girls and a photo op for the boys set up on the lawn near the iced coffee and punch table.

One of the newest features of this year’s art show was the sculpture garden.  I take credit for this idea and I also took a lot of crap from some very stressed out teachers who did not want to participate.  In the end, everyone managed came up with a class sculpture for the garden.  I was amazed by how lovely and different all the pieces turned out!!!  For all of their complaining, the teachers ended up thinking the garden was a nice addition to the art show.

Cutie Pie’s class worked with a local artist (who happens to also be one of the student’s grandmother) to create Tilly the sea turtle.  It took the class many work sessions over a couple of months to create the sculpture from paper mache and I think it turned out beautifully!!!

In the end, I managed to survive not one but two heartwarming/heart wrenching performances this week.  My little boys are growing up in the blink of an eye.  What can I do to slow this down?  I simply don’t like this brutal march of time.