On Curtains and Constantly Moving

This weekend I finally finished sewing dark-out liners in our bedroom curtains.  We've been in the house for over a year, and I have been slightly frustrated I haven't managed to get around to this task, rated as "medium" difficulty on my chore list.  Even though the actual act of sewing is not too difficult (after I finally sat down, only took just over two hours for three panels), I had to jump through a number of mental hurdles before sewing.

1 - I had to decide if I wanted to use our super nice think lining material I had stitched into 84" panels in India.  In HYD, we had two curtain rods per window, so it was easy to hang.  In Manila, I recut (but never hemmed the edges) and safety pinned the lining to the existing curtains hung on one track. So, should I just keep the material to rig up in our next city (whenever or wherever that may be?), buying new liner here?  Or should I use it?

2 - I don't really like our curtain color with our wall color.  Should I even keep these curtains (which I actually do like) or just get new ones that coordinate better with the wall color?  Will I have time to paint the room before we move (Greg doubts it)?  Should I "upgrade" the curtains even if I decide to get new ones?  If I "upgrade" them, will I get new ones?  Will it force me to prioritize painting our room to a more neutral off-white rather than the brown?

After I finally decided to just use the lining I had (finally hemming the edges I quickly cut in Manila), with existing curtains, I then had more decisions.

3a - Do I properly measure and cut and tack the lining, so it fits and hangs well?  I have four panels of lining, but only three curtains.  The lining panels are about six inches too narrow.  But I have only three curtains.  So, I could easily cut some strips from the fourth panel, sew into each of the other panels, and then properly fit the lining to the curtains.  The curtains are only 72", but the lining is 84", so I'd also have to cut and hem length

OR

3b - Do I just fit one lining per curtain as best I can, and then not worry about the fact that there's about 2-3" on either side of the curtain that is unlined?  And, if I'm cutting that corner, do I just leave 6" at the top of the lining, or do I still properly measure and sew the seam?

In the end, I decided to just bootleg it, sewing a straight line across the top of the curtain, with six inches inside at the top.  And I used safety pins at the bottom rather than tacking it down the side.  My reasoning?

I really like the liners - we haven't found as thick or dar a lining (for as reasonable a price) since HYD.  So, I didn't want to cut up the fourth panel.  And I did want to keep the full 84" length in case we need that much in the next city (whenever or wherever that may be).  And, not being sold on the curtains (since I might not get around to painting, let's be honest), I didn't want to invest in new lining.  This way, all I need to do when we move is take out one straight seam, and I will once again have liners to tack or safety pin to whatever window treatments I might have in the future (whenever or wherever that may be).  And with safety pins, I could finish the project quickly, before I got too tired or any boys distracted me.

Decisions made, five straight seams sewn, curtains hung, dark room this morning.  Great.

Except, I know my grandmother is probably rolling in her grave, since cutting corners was not how she taught me to sew.  Were she alive, I'd appeal to her Depression-Child side, pointing out how I'm saving and reusing material, again and again.  Surely that must count for something in her book, right?

Pink Legos

Wm just finished up two weeks of at STEM camp at his school.  He had a great time learning about basic electricity, Lego robotics, computer programming through Scratch, "non-Newtonian" substances, etc.  Really his only suggestion was that they needed more time to play sports (can't get that kid to sit still for too long!).  My complaint was that the first week, his camp at 16 boys and 2 girls.  The second week was 17 boys and 1 girl.  As an almost-math-major and from a family with women who "do math," I found this really disappointing.

The same week, I received Pottery Barn Kids back-to-school catalog.  Wm needed a new backpack, and his $15 Target Planes backpack from last year (which he loved despite never having seen the movie?) was totally dead, so I thought I'd splurge on a more expensive one to see if it would last longer.  I opened the catalog to find 21 different backpacks with pink and purple and only 9 for boys, all blue.

Between these two things, I've been fired up all week about gender differentiation.  Some friends posted on my FB rant that the camp should offer a girls-only camp -- which, by the way, it does.  BUT, as a mother of three boys, this doesn't satisfy me.  All it does is show my boys that girls can only "do science" if they're in a special program.  Same at Target where, apparently, girls can only "do Legos" if they are pink and purple and involve ponies.

And what would happen if a girl wanted a red backpack?  Or of my son wanted an orange one?  Not a single gender neutral option available!  (in fairness, I did just check the PBKids website and, under the "Boys Fairfax" collection, they do offer navy/red/green solids and stripes ... but apparently a solid red backpack is only ok for boys?  Girls colors are powder pink, lavender and baby blue)

I brought these concerns up with a neighbor (who has one boy and one girl) to see if I was over reacting.  She shares a dislike of pink Legos.  She also said that after Google's diversity report, she's relaxed restrictions on her daughter's "productive" screen time and asked her husband (who is a programmer) to spend extra time on the computer with their daughter, to make sure their daughter has a basic working knowledge.

Kudos out there to parents of girls who are trying to bring up women with confidence that they can "do science" without having a "special" set aside from them.  And I'm on the hunt for more gender balanced science camps, so my sons can passively understand that gender doesn't play into STEM ability.

Throwing a party

Attending my friend's baby shower this weekend (in theory, I was invited to co-host, but in actuality, my co-host is such an amazing party planner, my "hosting" was limited to baking three quiches and making sure the party 'progressed' nicely), I was reminded how easy it is to have parties in America.  At least, how easy it is to have American-style parties in America.  No hunting wide and low for paper plates.  Cakes readily available from a number of bakeries.  Decorations a click away from Amazon and choices endless.  Brown paper bags with windows and custom stickers for the cookie bag favors?  No problem!  Linen rentals, monogramed napkins, the list goes on.

Really, the shower was beautiful and my hat is off to a dear college friend for organizing.  On the bus ride home, I thought about planning parties in other countries.  The colorful tent rented for Patch's first birthday.  Catering near-debacles for other parties in HYD.  Five mani-pedi ladies coming to the house for a baby shower in Manila.  The gatherings, of course, were still fun because of the people - we ended up making things fun with what we had.  Overall, though, I think my heart is in the traditional U.S.-style party.  Happy to be back home and celebrate with friends.

Possibilities

Most mornings when I have "morning report" duty, I drive.  The silver lining is a chance to listen to NPR.  In the past, I've found Garrison Keillor a bit annoying, but this week I've really enjoyed the Writer's Almanac installment.  That for June 5 was especially good, so copying the poem, "Possibilities" by Linda Pastan below.  I find especially poignant the lines about growing larger and then smaller -- with three little ones, I know they'll get bigger and then we'll have a time when we're back down to two, but how things will change during that process cannot be foretold.  Does waking up so early in the morning always make one so reflective?  

Possibilities

by Linda Pastan

Today I drove past a house
we almost bought and heard
through the open window music

made by some other family.
We don't make music ourselves, in fact
we define our differences

by what we listen to.
And what we mean by family
has changed since then

as we grew larger then smaller again
in ways we knew would happen
and yet didn't expect.

Each choice is a winnowing,
and sometimes at night I hear
all the possibilities creak open

and shut like screendoors
in the wind,
making an almost musical

accompaniment
to what I know
of love and history.

Over Memorial Day Weekend

Wm's teacher has been trying to get him to write as expressively as he speaks (and use proper punctuation).  He was so happy when she gave him a "P" ("progressing" as opposed to "I" for "improving" or "N" for "needs work") for this essay.  I won't save the paper, so writing it here for my blog files (but maybe family out there will enjoy reading it).  Kind of hard to type with the special spelling, but I'll try.

All he missed was Saturday dinner at his aunt's house with one grandpa and the cousins -- and going to Adventure Park (see this post)!  I'm really surprised he forgot to write about being up in the trees, though I can understand how the excitement of the mini scooters, s'mores on fire, and pool time were exciting enough to crowd out memory of a big family dinner.

Also made me think - had we been overseas, this weekend most certainly would have been spent traveling somewhere, likely at a nice resort with a pool (if we were still in South or SouthEast Asia), and excursions to some super old temples or strange land formations, or something like that.  The description below is much more "normal American"- which doesn't always seem interesting to blog about, but, in reality, is as much a learning experience for our family as an excursion to an exotic locale.

---

Over  Mamoryial weekend I saw my cozends and went to the pool.  First we road mini scooters.  I mad smors and my cozond Lexi got her marshmelo on fire my brother tride to get his mrshmelo on fire to. then we went home I was criing because I wonted a sleepover.  Next, the next day I went to pool with Ry and Ari.  After that, I went on the diving bord.  It was very fun  I even took off my gogels for the first time in my life.  I had a very fun time with my family and frendis.

Subset of Cousins.  It's near impossible to get a picture with all since our three are so wiggly!

Adventure Park

With the impetus of cousins visiting from Blackburg, VA, we finally took the time to have an adventure.  I'm not sure why we've been such home bodies since arriving in the US - maybe it's just because we can.  Weekends revolve around Saturday morning shopping, quiet afternoon at home while Ian naps, late afternoon at park, dinner and bed.  Repeat on Sunday, substituting church for shopping and Wm's soccer game during Ian's nap.  Dull and repetitive, but without the stress of having to plan or be somewhere at a specific time.

This weekend, though, we visited Sandy Springs Adventure Park -- and had a great time.  Well, Wm and I had a great time (Patch was too small, and after three hours of waiting to watch us since it was so crowded, went home with a cranky Ian who only napped an hour in his stroller).  Since it was *almost* Wm's birthday, they let him go on the medium courses as long as I went with him (of course!), so it was a great activity for him to be a big kid -- rather than always having to find activities that suit all children (very hard when Ian isn't yet 2).

He faced one zip line where he was in tears because he was scared, but a staff member on the ground coached him through (where my soothing words in the tree next to him didn't work), and he did it.  Listening to him and his cousins chat about their experiences at dinner after was priceless - and resulted in Patch making us promise that we could go again next year when he is five and able to try out the two easy courses.  Monkey see, monkey do!

Wm crossing a tightrope

Getting back into old habits

As probably apparent from many posts on this blog, baby #3 upset many routines.  Or, maybe it's just that baby #3 came, then we only had six months left in Manila, then we returned to DC, and our routines would have been turned upside down anyway ... but I "blame" it on baby #3.  Not that we resent baby #3 at all. Au contraire, he's usually a joy to have around, assuming he's not banging things on the coffee table or hitting anyone out of frustration for not being able to actually fully speak yet.

This week, though, I was reminded of what a doctor told me in high school: my minor scoliosis would be fine as long as I continued to dance or do other things that kept me limber and gave me a strong abdomen.  After I stopped dancing in high school, I took up various activities - pilates, swimming, yoga, among others - to accomplish this goal.  I was doing pretty well, until June 2012, when my neighbor-yoga-teacher moved away and I just couldn't bear sitting in two hours of Manila traffic for a one hour yoga class - especially in my last trimester OR with a nursing baby at home.  Self-practice attempts with three boys at home failed miserably.

Flash forward almost two years, with no activities other than my daily walk commute.  While that cannot be undersold (I've regained a good amount of strength, actually, and returned to my pre-William pregnancy weight), I haven't paid attention to my high school doctor's warning.  And after a weekend of Patch using me as a jungle gym and Ian being insisted to be carried, I found myself just barely able to walk.  GACK.

After a week of hot packs, ibuprofen, and a screaming toddler (sad I wasn't carrying him), I can finally just barely reach my fingertips to my toes.  My normal is a full palm on the ground, but I can't complain too much given the pain of the last week.  A friend at work suggested that I take advantage of my cave-like office, shut my door, and do 20 minutes of self-practice yoga each day before lunch.  Brilliant.  And no ability to complain about baby #3 interrupting things.

Wm has "DEAR" time at school ("drop everything and read").  Come tomorrow, I need to put a yoga-equivalent reminder on my Outlook.  Anyone out there good at coming up with catchy acronyms?