Tomorrow Patches has been invited to go to a local farm/park. I’ve been invited to go along if I wish. I don’t wish. The prospect of having several hours free of all children is more attractive to me than the prospect of going with my friend to watch our kids enjoy farm animals. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll go. I feel bad for sending my child and not helping with the outing management.
Wednesday is the cub scout Pine Wood Derby. There are people who consider turning a block of wood into a car to be a delightful challenge. I am not one of them. I do not have a table saw and sander in my garage. I don’t have that other tool which I don’t even know exists, but which would probably have made construction much easier. What I do have is a pruning saw, a sheet of sandpaper, and very tired arms. Link did most of the sanding and now he’s doing the painting. But on Wednesday is the big event where Link will be very sad to discover that his car loses to the cars of kids whose parents have power tools. Then after the chaos and emotion management of the pine wood derby, I get to go to a girls camp preparatory meeting with Kiki.
Thursday is Kiki’s big Shakespeare play. She has been working on this for months. I have to attend. I can either attend the daytime performance, but duck out to retrieve Gleek from school in the middle of it. Or I can arrange for babysitting and attend the evening performance. This is also the day I’m supposed to volunteer in Gleek’s class. I’ll probably cancel that. And Gleek has a birthday party to attend. At least I have the costume ready. Now we just have to do costume, makeup, and hair before school both Wednesday (the dress rehearsal) and Thursday (the performances.)
Friday Link has a field trip to the hansen planetarium. He informed me of this today and asked me with big sad eyes, could I please come with him? I have never been on a field trip with any of my kids. Going on field trips is supposed to be something that involved parents do, but I’ve never made space for it. Friday is otherwise empty. I could arrange babysitting and make Link very happy. But shepherding hyper children-on-a-field-trip is not restful. It is a high energy activity. I have no energy now and I haven’t even gotten to the busy part of the week.
All of that doesn’t even begin to take into account all the house and yard work chores that I want to have done. I’m tired of being embarrassed every time I look at my front yard.
I’m still on the stairs and though I’ve tried all day I haven’t managed to kick the mood yet. At least Howard comes home in the next hour.
speaking as someone
whose dad didn’t have power tools, but did have a miter box…
cutting both ends of the car back at an angle and screwing on tire balancing weights (mmm, lead…) proved quite effective at improving the speed of the car. well, that and the powdered graphite we put on the axles. 😉 we got the car to go fast enough that when it hit the barrier at the end of the track it flipped over it and hit the floor.
now the doggone boats… there, the kids with tool-minded dads definitely had the advantage.
speaking as someone
whose dad didn’t have power tools, but did have a miter box…
cutting both ends of the car back at an angle and screwing on tire balancing weights (mmm, lead…) proved quite effective at improving the speed of the car. well, that and the powdered graphite we put on the axles. 😉 we got the car to go fast enough that when it hit the barrier at the end of the track it flipped over it and hit the floor.
now the doggone boats… there, the kids with tool-minded dads definitely had the advantage.
Time speant
I went and won my division once in the pinewood derby, Most of the time though I would get first or second in most unique design or some other award. Most of all from what I remember on it, I remember the time I speant with my father working on the car. While the race is the goal and the motivator for doing the car, I think overall looking back on things, It’s an activity that you can do together with your child to have a bonding experience. When I look at my old cars, I do not remember the races or how they were one or lost, I remember the time my dad, brother, and I spent designing and working on them.
Have him keep his car, and keep them with other childhood memoribellia, then when he is going through his stuff one day when he is an adult, the memories will be triggered. 🙂
Time speant
I went and won my division once in the pinewood derby, Most of the time though I would get first or second in most unique design or some other award. Most of all from what I remember on it, I remember the time I speant with my father working on the car. While the race is the goal and the motivator for doing the car, I think overall looking back on things, It’s an activity that you can do together with your child to have a bonding experience. When I look at my old cars, I do not remember the races or how they were one or lost, I remember the time my dad, brother, and I spent designing and working on them.
Have him keep his car, and keep them with other childhood memoribellia, then when he is going through his stuff one day when he is an adult, the memories will be triggered. 🙂
Re: Time speant
I agree. And saving the car is a good idea…and it is fun to display at their Eagle Court of Honor/Reception. 🙂
Re: Time speant
I agree. And saving the car is a good idea…and it is fun to display at their Eagle Court of Honor/Reception. 🙂