eternally chaotic

A recent foray into the kids school yesterday to return a book bag overlooked by its rightful owner upon exiting the van while hastily headed to stand in a magical line.  Said book bag in hand I signed into school and applied my sticky name badge identifying myself as non-hostile.  It was then that I noticed an unusually large number of kids standing in line around a corner, a destination somewhere unseen, and sound decibel levels near rock concert pandemonium.  Earlier the kids were excited about purchasing a special pencil at the book store before class so I figured Piper, the rightful owner of the abandoned book bag, would be in line somewhere.  Searching, I was passed by kid after kid, each with a pencil in hand, or tucked up under their nose, all sniffing heftily.  The line continued down a hall and around a corner and at the end I saw the destination of each of the queued – an ordinary looking table, attended by ordinary looking teachers, selling ordinary looking pencils.  But wait.  The kids near the front of the line were vibrating with joy and excitement.  Looking past each ahead with both envy and hatred that they might reach their destination first and by chance deplete the stockpile of tabled treasure.  I heard then from the peddlers up ahead, a dreadful announcement, “Only three left”, followed by a roar of elementary curses and a crushing push from those in line trying to rush the table in a last ditch effort to get their clammy hands on the last of the vehicles of their writing desire, the type of rush you would expect when Great White uses pyrotechnics on stage.  It was at this moment that I learned of the connection between this now hysterical line and what our kids had been robbing piggy banks and having lucid dreams for.  Smencils.  These crafty little gems things are drugs but for entry level fiends.  These magical little rolls of graphite surrounded by wood and topped with a squishy colored eraser might as well be laced with Florida Snow or Fatty perfectly disguised for private consumption for the level of obsession they insight.  The line alone to purchase one of these was on par with how the Mac-ites enthusiastically lines up days ahead to offer paper donations to their fruity deity.  I finally caught up to my bag-less princess and her brother skipping their way to class from the now broken line of envious onlookers.  They were not in the lucky bunch to get a hit but both were optimistic that the next time the peddler came to bear gifts that they too might be able to fly.

The kids are challenged by their school to read, read, and read even more.  All in an effort to get them reading at or above the state mandated reading recommendations for their age group and class.  The program is called “Read to Succeed” and requires the kids to read six hours of material over two months.  We take the program a step farther and turn reading into a nightly bedtime requirement.  Thirty minutes before lights out the CoTC head up to their rooms, grab their latest chapter book, board book, Lego magazine, game manual, or whatever might float their fancy for the evening and partake in some serious forced leisure time.  More often than not they pass through several books during this time and certainly rack up more hours than required by the program.  The reward for this challenge is a free ticket to Six Flags Over Georgia.  That is quite a great deal for us as well since kids tickets run $45 and adult tickets are $54.  Lump that into a quick buy one get one free coupon for Carol and I and we end up getting a day of fun for something we would enforce regardless of the program requirements.

Our family outing to partake in combating Georgia heat exhaustion while getting our thrills happened to be this weekend.  Everyone was excited and pumped to go.  We spent the evening prior with the boys watching various rides on YouTube so that they knew what they were getting into if they decided to ride some “real” roller coasters.  Isaac thought there were all cool but wanted nothing to do with actually riding one.  Jacob adamantly wanted to ride the Mind Bender.  The girls had recently been to Kings Island in Ohio with Grandma and Grandpa and were psyched as well to see what Six Flags had to offer.  Weather checked, bag of snacks and water packed, sunscreen applied, we headed out toward adventure.

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Fall and Halloween are now a touch behind us but I still wanted to share a few moments we had together at Jaemore Farms in Alto, GA in early October.  It was a perfect day for picking up pumpkins, taking a hay ride, playing some festival games and generally enjoying the perfect weather.  The games were pretty cool.  Our favorite two were the Apple Sling Shot where Isaac made a bullseye and won a free pumpkin (that got to be my pumpkin) and the duck race where you had to pump a well handle to make the water flow as fast as you could so that your duck would get to the big pond on the other side the fastest – the CoTC loved this and did not want to leave.

It is rare to get snow in Georgia, or well normally it is, but the past few years we have received at least a little, normally after the turn of the new year when winter is in full swing.  This year however we were surprised that the weathermen were actually right for once when it started snowing on Christmas Day.  It didn’t take long before the temperatures plummeted and massive snow flakes started to stick and accumulate.  It was a wet snow to start with, wet enough that Dad and I were able to chase off Autumn, pummeling her with snowball after snowball when she had to leave Christmas night – I guess next time she will stick around

The day after however much of the wetness had dried up and all that was left was a nice power – little icy for skiing but nice nonetheless.  The CoTC could take it no longer though and wrapped themselves in layer upon layer to head out into the arctic cold.  Great times ensued !!!

It was great to have snow and even better to have it on Christmas Day.

Sitting at the island while I poked around on the laptop the kids were playing in front of me in the living room. They were all edgy after doing homework and getting a snack and had not really settled into any type of comfortable evening routine. Anytime one of them did something another did not like, a wartime skirmish would break out on the living room floor – Lego, PlayMobile and horses be damned.

It was during one of these particularly conversational skirmishes that I intervened, trying for the sake of sanity only to add some sort of reasoning to the seeming mindless bickering so it could be solved in a civilized manner – silly me. Piper stood up and said, “Daddy, I am not whining. I am debugging.” The statement was said with direction, strength and finality, as if there was no further explanation necessary and this was not only a sufficient response but obviously the only one required.

Carol and I couldn’t help but turn our backs and laugh quietly to each other. The debug system (love it or hate it) is something they teach kids in school these days as a way towards conflict resolution without resorting to the sticks and stones that we grew up with.

A much anticipated trip to the fair today.  One of my favorite events to look forward to each year growing up.  Granted the fairs in Franklin were a little more focused on 4-H, but there was still fun to be found (and had).  We have been talking about this trip with the kids for the past few weeks and they were all very excited about getting to ride the rides and play games (even Carol but I think she was interested in the naughty food….).  Earlier in the day we took them to the grocery store along with three jars of change we have been collecting all year long – this was our spending money for any and all the goodies the fair could offer – plus it was a good way to show them that saving could add up over time.  Before cashing in the coins we all took turns guessing how much we had.  I asked them to pick a number from one to one hundred – while we were watching the coins drop in and the total go up we had to stop and make new guesses (much to our surprise).  In the end we turned three jars of change into $172.02 (woo-hoo !!!)  and the kids were able to see the coins turned into bills (what is it about $20 bills that even kids find appealing).

Once we arrived the fair was happy to relieve us of much of our hard earned loot.  Tickets run about one dollar each and each ride takes between three and six tickets OR you can purchase a stamp for twenty-five bucks that covers all the rides, kiddie and adult.  We opted for the stamps for the kids and a few extra tickets in case we needed to ride with one of them – seemed like a good deal and the kids certainly took advantage of it by riding everything thing they could, sometimes a few times over.

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Sea World here we come!!!  The kids were very excited to be headed out to their adventure “under the sea”.  The drive was about one hour and they kept themselves busy doing what all twenty-first century kids do in the car – watch movies and play games.

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After a day in the car the kiddos were revved up to get out and burn some energy.  I think they would have been happy doing anything but we decided that a good dip in the ocean would do them all some good.  It takes a while to get us all lathered up in sunblock and out to the sand but we eventually made it right around the time the sun was a massive ball of fire directly overhead.

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