The Green Goblins

Fall soccer is off to a great start, even though the Green Goblins got clobbered by the Purple Whatevers today. Lily continues to have fun and her coach said she has a "high soccer IQ." She certainly does keep her head in the game, and keeps kicking even when she's on the ground!

Homework!

First grade homework is a lot more intense than kindergarten homework. Lily wasn't that into it last week, so this week we made a big deal out of setting up a homework box and buying the necessary supplies for it.

Here's Lily organizing the box. She labelled the folders, and delighted in having her own stapler and scotch tape dispenser. Like mother like daughter. How long before she asks for her own filing cabinet for Christmas? (I was in 5th grade. And, in my defense, at least I wanted it to be red.)

We did this homework tonight - they're learning about maps in social studies, and Lily drew a map of her room. What, you don't know what all those objects are? Well, then, check out the key:

Yes, smack in the middle of the room is a pile of dog poo and pee (this isn't a frequent occurence at my house - a visiting dog last week had an accident in Lily's room and it made quite an impression on her). Also, notice the many shoes and dirty socks scattered about.

I hope her teacher has a sense of humor!

Claire's Latest Mosaics

Deb versus Email

My work email inbox - EMPTY! I've been trying to achieve this feat since we first got email in 1995. My email approach is to move an email from my inbox to the appropriate folder once I have dealt with it. There are thousands of emails in the folders on the left, but not a single one requiring my attention in the inbox.

Behold:


This means I have either reached peak performance or have become completely irrelevant. I'm thinking the former - I am involved in a major project at work, and still have multiple cross-referenced and color coded to do lists a mile long, but, at the moment, no one is waiting for me to respond to an email.


Ahhh, sweet victory.

It lasted for two whole hours, not surprising since it's a Sunday morning. Here's the offender, who is a wonderful person who is also working very hard on that major project, but who was promptly read and deleted.

Victory again, at least for a little while.

Mom versus TV

Neighbor girls Frannie and Georgia came over to play today. I have a rule - no tv when friends are over. Not because I'm opposed to tv, but I'd rather save it for when I need Lily to be occupied and there are no other kids around.

The girls: Can we watch TV?
Deb: No. Play with each other.
The girls: We don't know what to do.
Deb: Figure something out.
The girls: There's nothing to do.
Deb: You can help me clean.
The girls: That's boring!
Deb: Play with something in Lily's room.
The girls: Everything's boring there!
Deb: Use your imaginations.
The girls: We're bored!! We want to watch tv!!
Deb: You'd better stop asking to watch tv and find yourselves a project, or I'm taking Frannie and Georgia home.
The girls: Harumph.

Three minutes later, they were making a bow and arrows out of sticks, string, and milkweed pods. "See?" I said. "You don't need a tv, you just need your imagination." Then, Michael told me the idea came to Lily yesterday, while she was home sick from school and watching Man vs. Nature ... on tv.

Frannie.

Milkweed pod arrow

A Great Way to End the Summer

Lily and I flew up to Long Island last weekend for a 24-hour visit. My mom flew up from Florida, and Lee came out from the city. Mary B. had a combined graduation party for Mike and Kate. The weather was fantastic and it was wonderful seeing family. And the food - my god!

The Ladies.

We need a hammock in our own backyard.

Timmy and Steph

Paella: Before.

Paella: After. Kudos to Jeff, the non-Spaniard, for having become the family's best paella maker. Mary really outdid herself on the rest of the food. The appetizers were amazing, and she made 96 cupcakes of 5 different varieties.

Super-elastic bubble plastic.

Aunt Mary and Mom playing beer pong. Well, not really but it's funny to imagine it.

The Baldwins. A million thanks for the party!

We drove by our first house, on Avenue A in Holbrook. I don't remember it being so small and so close to the street.

And we drove by our old Cutchogue house. Lee and I used to jump over those trees!

There are more photos of the party on my Flickr account.

First Day of School

Some day Lily will forgive me for this haircut.

Comparing footwear selections.