I am the mother of an 11 year-old

A lot has happened in the past few weeks, so I never got around to posting about J's birthday. I went a little overboard in letting him have both a "ropes course" in the woods and a sleep-over. But I don't regret it.

This is the first time in 11 years he's had more than two friends around for his birthday (as school gets out at the end of May in the US. Here, we only had to have the party one week early).

In honor of his 11th year, let me introduce my oldest boy...

Here he is with a boy from his class who came to the birthday party. Unfortunately there are very few decent pictures of the ropes course they climbed on, because the camera was acting up. Just imagine a lot of boys high up in trees (with proper safety gear).


He got the first part of the cake at his party. He got the second half with family on the actual day of his birthday.


We got him a swiss army knife to replace the one he'd lost. But the small, square packaging was so obvious, I decided to hide it within a larger box. Then I decided to make it more fun, by wrapping it again. So he got to unwrap three times before he got to the actual gift.


You can see here how much he loved it. (The other thing in his hand is a gift card to iTunes from his grandparents).


The boy has been stealing my paperclips to make lock picks. (He requested a set of professional lock picks for his birthday because "these aren't sturdy enough.") Like I need to support his kleptocratic habits. I finally confiscated them all when he started to teach the younger boys how to do it.

Where ever we go, he finds the highest thing around to climb on. (That's E behind him crying because he can't get up). We have a rule in our family - if you can't get there yourself, it's too high. J can apparently go anywhere.

When we went to Versailles to see the fountains, it was a beautiful warm day. The boys got quickly bored with history and art, and started messing around instead. J was so good that day, letting the littler boys climb all over him.

He managed to carry all of them at least once, and here got two at once. This was the most fun for me - watching him loving his brothers.

Where did the year go? How did he get so big? And capable.

Birthday Dinner

I think this is the most expensive meal I have ever eaten. Good thing I only turn 40 once. And yes, it was exceptionally yummy! And the view was georgous.

The only not-perfect part was that there was never any aknowledgement of my birthday. The woman at the table next to us however, received a dessert with a candle. She looked confused. Maybe it was supposed to be mine.

It's a Fine Life*

For your viewing pleasure - a field of rapseed, looking up.

It's official. I am 40 years old. Today. So far (other than a sore knee), forty feels pretty good.

I woke up early (not on purpose, but it worked out that way). I took myself for a brisk walk in the cool morning air. I returned in time to switch parenting duties with T, who left for work. Since the boys were still sleeping, I got out my journal and wrote a little.

I thought about something Jeremy Taylor says about how our dreams always come to us in the service of health and wholeness, and that our souls are always striving toward wholeness. It occured to me that this might be true for my body as well - it, too, is doing its best to heal. Maybe all I need to do is to get out of the way, and stop trying to push it so hard.

I am concerned that if my knee doesn't heal, teaching Jazzercise will be damaging to myself rather than good for me. Which, makes this really important. I'm getting support, and I'm attending to it. I think I'll be good for September.

After writing in my journal, the boys still weren't up, so I came in to check out my email and read my favorite inspiring blog. Within moments, I got a skype call from a good friend who had stayed up late (Colorado time) to wish me happy birthday. Then, after saying goodbye, I read a lovely letter from my mother, describing how my life was as a baby.

While I was reading, my brother (who is also in Colorado) skyped too, and I got to talk to him. By that time, the boys were up and got to say hello to their "Uncle Monkey Face" too.

What a nice way to start my 4th decade.

Tonight T is taking me out to a fancy dinner at La Maison Blanche, and next weekend I will take myself to a spa in Alsace. Life is good.

* It's a Fine Life

Random Pictures of R

I have so many pictures from the last month, it's going to take me awhile to post them. I'm trying an experiment, writing about one kid at a time. This one is R. Eight & a half years old. Now, since he's no longer a 2nd grader, it's official. He's a third grader. Wow.

In this picture, he is at the "treehouse" he and his brother discovered in the forest nearby. They have been working together on "improvements." Except J complains that all R does is watch while he does all the work. As much is getting done, I'm not too worried about who's "job" it is.


On a trip to Versailles to look at the fountains, it was a beautiful day. There are lots of expanses of green grass where people picnicked and frolicked. Here, R is working on his cartwheel. Still could use some work.


The entire second grade (about 35 kids) went on an extended field trip to "Circus Camp." They all got to learn all the different things - trapeze, juggling, tight-"rope"-walking, ball-walking, hoops, clowning, etc. Then, they chose their
two favorites to perform for the parents. He chose ball-walking and clowning. They had great costumes and tremendous support from the staff.

Here he is telling his joke about "Burpee the Flea." He was the only kid to perform solo (she's holding the microphone for him). I'll post the video when T gets it out from the entire circus performance.


He was awesome! Her he is afterwards, with makeup still on. With me, his proud mama.


It's fun to be his mom. (Even though he often drives me crazy). So what else is new?

I'll try to make a post like this for each kid over the next week or two.

School's out

Well, for the big guys, anyway. Today was the last day of school. Lots of people are leaving permanently, or moving on to other assignments.

It's interesting. I have made a home/community within the school and the expat population here. One thing that didn't occur to me as I did this, is... people leave. There's no getting around it. It is a constantly revolving door here.

So, today I had to say goodbye to new friends. I like the idea of keeping in touch. But I'm not sure how well it will work out. Hopefully this blog will be one of the ways in which I do it.

Which is, I guess why I started it in the first place. So, even if I don't post regularly, it's still more than I would be doing if I were trying to keep in touch by emailing or calling my friends.

I may or may not get around to posting last month's pictures. I'm not that great at doing the "backlog" stuff. But, as my writing coach pointed out, I need to remember the purpose of writing. Which, here, is to stay connected.

I'll be visiting the states soon - Colorado from July 25 - Aug 1, and Texas Aug 2 - 11. Let me know if we can get together.

Since the older boys are out of school now, most (but not all) of my school-related activities are done. I am looking forward to exploring a little of Paris with big kids. I'll (try to remember to) keep you posted. :)

Oh, Hi there...

It's not that I haven't had anything to write about. It's not even that I've been so busy I don't have time to write. It's not that I don't care.

Come to think of it, I don't really know why I haven't posted in almost a month. Hmmm. Let's see if I can recap what's been happening in the past 30 days...

In order of what I remember...

1. Birthday party for J;
2. Birthday party for A;
3. Planning birthday party for me;
4. Day-trip to Chartres - the labyrinth was OPEN!
5. Tour through the Les Halles district of Paris;
6. Planning all above activities;
7. Jazzercise;
8. Physical Therapy for sore knee;
9. Osteopath for sore knee;
10. Planning trip to USA (July 24 - Aug 14);
11. Signing kids up for summer camps on two continents;
12. Discovering originally-planned summer camp no longer exists;
13. Finding new camps for same time period;
14. Day trip to Versailles with boys;
15. Tour of Monmartre;
16. Sending two older boys on two different extended field trips;
17. Two-day trip to Epernay (Champagne region), with accompanying winery tours;
18. Watching R be a clown (and gymnast) in the circus;
19. Lying in the middle of a field of rapseed grass;

More, but I have a request to play/teach backgammon. I'll post pictures from the month soon.

Flower Happy

Last Friday I went to Giverny with two other women from my older kids' school. I was very excited to be invited, and to be able to say yes. I've been here for ten (eleven!?) months. I'm starting to feel comfortable enough to explore more. (Of course, it helps to have someone else drive.)

Giverny is the place where Claude Monet lived, gardened and did many of his more famous paintings. It is a place filled with flowers and with light.

I am not a photographer normally, but I really had fun trying to make good pictures from this stunning garden. You can't not take pictures here. Tell me what you think...

Looking out the bedroom window from his maison.

Puff ball.

Two flowers growing together.

Irises are my all-time favorite flower.

They smelled as wonderful as they looked.

My friend Laurie appreciating a Japanese Maple.

On THE Bridge.

Looking off THE bridge.

Another bridge.

Another bridge across the water. Apparently the lillies bloom in July and August. I'd like to go again, and bring the boys & T to see it.

I think they'd like the bugs too.

And other growing things.

Tania & Laurie & the Weeping Willow.

Gotta remember to look up too. These were above us.

This amazing flower, grows from...


These cones that resemble pinecones! They came in every color of the sunset - red, pink, orange, purple, peach!

More irises.

Don't know what these are, but I like how I caught the light.

There I am with Laurie, along the garden path.

This is a better picture of the path.

I thought the slug was cool too - hanging by his own slime.

Another iris.

It had just rained, and water droplets were on everything.

If you enlarge this, you can see the bumble-bee flying up into the flower. They all but disappeared inside.