These are the movies that you probably couldn't avoid if you grew up in our house (the ones that are italicized are the ones younger son hasn't seen yet):
A Man for All Seasons ("That's a dancer's leg!")("His looks. I give you
his looks.")
Princess Caraboo
King of Hearts ("Plumpick. Isn't that a German name?")
Beckett
Chariots of Fire
Amelie
Lion in Winter
Heart and Souls ("Walk like a man, talk like a man...")
Cyrano de Bergerac ("Will he write to me?" "That, I promise.")
Deathtrap ("A person with no sense of moral obligation whatsoever.")
Witness ("A horse only needs one good...")
The African Queen ("Oh, miss, miss... hair of the dog!")
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Amadeus (above right)("I am the patron saint of mediocrity.")
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Arsenic and Old Lace
Charade ("We'll have six boys and name them all after you!")
North by Northwest
The Godfather ("Leave the gun, take the cannoli.")
Scent of a Woman (below right)("Don't shrug you idiot...")
Casablanca ("I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in this establishment!" "Here are your winnings sir." "Thank you.")
The Remains of the Day
The Big Sleep ("She was trying to sit in my lap - standing up!")
The Princess Bride (right)("Never match wits with a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha, ha, ha, ha..." clunk)("My way is not very sportsman-like")("No good, I've known too many Spaniards.")("Humperdink, Humperdink, HUMPERDINK!")("Aaaaaas yoooooouuuu wiiiiiiish.")
Stardust ("Murdered by pirates. Heart torn out and eaten. Meet Victoria. I can't quite decide which sounds more fun...")
Star Trek IV ("Take me to your nuclear wessels.")
Star Wars IV, V, VI ("These are not the droids you're looking for.")
Independence Day ("Welcome to earth.")
Galaxy Quest ("Whoever wrote this episode should die!")
Night at the Museum ("Who's more evolved?")
ET
Superman (did you know that Christopher Reeve modeled his performance of Clark Kent on Cary Grant's performance in Bringing Up Baby?)
Romancing the Stone ("Oh, Anita Wilder. I've read all your books!")
Silverado
Raiders of the Lost Ark I, III ("Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes.")("No ticket!")
Jurassic Park ("Welcome, to Jurassic Park!")
Space Cowboys ("I might be blind, but my memory is still perfect.")
Harry Potter I, II, III ("We could be killed, or worse, expelled!")("She needs to get her priorities straight!")
The Incredible Journey ("He threw me into the big litter pan!")
Back to the Future I, II, III ("Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!")
Die Hard ("I am an exceptional thief, Mrs. McClane. And since I'm moving up to kidnapping, you should be more polite.")
RED (right)("If you break his heart, I will kill you and bury your body in the woods." "Wow.")
And I've added Treasure Planet to the post on animated movies ("Spider psycho, spider psycho, spider psycho!")
Last weekend, we were talking about some of the movies we refer to the most - plot, quotes, characters, etc. These are the movies that you probably couldn't avoid if you grew up in our house (the ones that are italicized are the ones younger son hasn't seen yet):
Animated:
Totoro (right)("Gollywollypogs!")
Fievel Goes West ("I love the long Aaaaaah!")
The Iron Giant ("You're right in the middle of the road!" "Yeah")
Rango ("Her aging father, strucketh by Cupid...")
Rudolph ("Let's be independent together!")
Frosty the Snowman ("Us evil magicians have to make a living too you know!"
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
The Emperor's New Groove ("Llama face!")
Mulan ("My little baby's all grown up and saving China")
Up ("I was hiding under your porch because I love you! Can I stay?")
Wall-E ("Out there, there's a world outside of Yonkers...")
Beauty and the Beast ("Flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep.")
Rescuers Down Under ("These are not Joanna eggs!")
Robin Hood ("Hiss! You're never around when I need you!")
The White Seal ("Mystical island? Mystical poppycock!")
Rikki-Tikki Tavi ("Run and find out.")
Aladdin ("And I can't bring people back from the dead. It's not a pretty picture and I don't like it.")
Lord of the Beans ("You're not a real elf! You're just an elvish impersonator!")
The Selfish Giant ("He visited with the Cornish Ogre for seven years, and then he left. His conversation was limited.")
The Lion King ("You're so wierd, Uncle Scar." "You have no idea.")
The Marzipan Pig (right) ("Love has hit me like a thud in the stomach!")
Cricket in Times Square ("Liverwurst!")
Thief and the Cobbler ("I'm not tall enough to ride this ride, and I suffer from dizzy spells, and I'm pregnant!" (said by a male character))
The Incredibles ("If everyone is special, that means nobody is.")
Finding Nemo ("Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!")("I will call him squishy, and he will be my squishy, and he will be mine.")
I actually have an evening with time to blog, and I don't even know where to start. Christmas was wonderful - daughter was home for almost a month, older son was off from college, no major illnesses, and we had a great time. Daughter didn't go back to college until after younger son's birthday on the 10th so January has actually felt shorter than usual. Some of the weather has been really cold, and we had snow and sleet on two different weeks. Today was beautiful with a high around 70 so I took a long walk this afternoon.
Dear husband and I took an anniversary trip for the first time in quite a while. We were trying to decide between Blowing Rock, NC and Richmond, VA (both about the same distance). That was the weekend of the snow so Blowing Rock would have been really pretty, but it was also going to be colder there, and there aren't as many things we do inside there. If it got too cold in Richmond, there are lots of stores and museums.
It turns out that we didn't spend much time inside. It got warm enough in the afternoons to go to Maymont Park and the Ginter Botanical Gardens. I took lots of pictures (of course!), but my camera hasn't been working right lately so the photos will require a lot of fixing up. The light meter has gone rather crazy, and the focus has a mind of its own. The camera is now at a local repair shop, and I'm left with a sad and empty camera case. I probably won't blog that many of the photos.
I've had a number of bad doctor's appointments (including the worst one ever) having to do with my blood pressure, asthma, and allergies. It's gotten to the point where my blood pressure goes up a day before a doctor's appointment because I'm dreading it, and it usually stays up for a week after because I'm so angry at how the appointment turned out. I talked to my doctor about the way my blood pressure tracks with how tense I am,* and she agreed that I should see someone about better ways any way to handle stress. Three doctor's appointments later, I still haven't found anyone in the regular health system who will help with that.
However, I've been getting occasional massages for the last half year. They're wonderful, and I slow down so much. I really can focus on things and appreciate beauty for the next few hours after a massage - before I go back to normal. Because it's so expensive, I alternate massages with voice lessons - which means that, if my voice isn't up to having a voice lesson, which happens all too often, I use the money for a massage instead. My massage therapist actually also specializes, not surprisingly, in how the emotions affect the body so I'll be talking more to her about that next week (because I lost my voice (and voice lesson) last week).
Home schooling is going wonderfully right now. Younger son has gotten into programming in the last week. He's also started enjoying math. Along with the algebra he's doing, we've been doing the constructions from Ruler and Compass (for those of you familiar with homeschooling math books, although he liked the other Key to... books he found the Key to Geometry books boring). I think younger son is past the worst of the past year's growth spurt, with the migraines and dizziness that went along with it. He's got a lot more energy for things. I'm glad because, even though we were still homeschooling, I felt like I missed him during his 13 yo hibernation year.
Unfortunately, the second session of the Swing Dance class that Dear Husband and I were taking is on Sunday evenings so we aren't taking it. On the happy side, the Broadway Dance class is back on Thursday evenings. So far, we've done One from A Chorus Line and Forget About the Boy from Thoroughly Modern Millie.
There are lots of posts I've thought of in the last month, but didn't have the time to write down (and edit, and edit...). I will mention one thing from one of them: I loved Les Misérables. It's one of my (many) favorite musicals. As I said to my kids at the theater, I've been waiting for this movie for about twenty years. I did see a student production onstage, but I haven't ever seen a professional production before. Were all the singers ideal? No, but I think that, given the usual need for box office stars, they did a fantastic job, and they got the spirit of the musical.
* Whereas, my bp hasn't changed at all when I've gained or lost weight or when I added lots of fruits and vegetables - and, now, I'm on to the low sodium thing.** By the way, do you know that, if you feed three hungry guys taco salads with no salt at all, none of them will have their usual seconds, but two of them will be back in the kitchen later for snacks?
** Which means no soups in the cold parts of the winter because canned soups have so much sodium. :(
The first half of that title sounds better, doesn't it?! However, I'm having a difficult time keeping the first from leading to the second.
I've had allergic reactions to three blood pressure drugs this year.* The one I was on the longest (two weeks, back in February) actually made my blood pressure constantly higher. Back in September, after the third allergic reaction, my doctor referred me to a specialist, but I won't be seeing her until next week.
Even before I had the third allergic reaction, I decided that, if the third drug didn't work, I was going to work hard on more natural means. However, this involves lots more time and focus than just popping a pill.
I already had done the easiest natural things, adding more fruits and vegetables, exercising daily, etc. Now, it's time for more drastic, life-changing measures - things that will inconvenience other people.
I try never to inconvenience other people.
It's easy for me to let my health take a back seat to all the other demands on my time and my emotions. There are lots of reasons for this, which I might blog about during NaBloPoMo. However, I don't think that I can rely on drugs like most people can - so I'm changing lots of other things (also maybe to blog about).
I need to narrow my focus down to two things: health and homeschooling. Those are the things that are only for me to do. Nobody else can do those for me.** Everything else - the state of the house, the state of the gardens, other people's expectations - even my expectations about how things "should go" - aren't even a distant third. They should be barely on the chart because they don't matter when set up against my actually continuing to be around for my family.
Oh, and for me too.
I'm so used to going along with what everyone else needs, though, that it will be very easy for me to feel guilty about not doing that. My usual attitude is that the other person really seems to need this so I can adjust to them. I can't keep always adjusting anymore.
* The three blood pressure drug allergic reactions and four magnesium allergic reactions this year really did a job on my voice, and they've caused me to miss a lot of choir this year.
** Homeschooling is going very well so it would be stupid to stop it unless younger son wanted to go to school, which he absolutely does not.
We tried to get rid of anything red in the front of the garage years ago. Hummingbirds would be drawn in by the color, then they would fly around the ceiling until they were exhausted, and they would rest on the wire to the garage door opener. Dear husband would climb up on the roof of the van, get the hummingbird off of the wire, and climb down (that's the hard part while he's carrying the hummingbird). He'd take the hummingbird outside and feed it sugar water from a potato peeler. That sounds strange, but the curve of the potato peeler keeps a small line of sugar water which the hummingbird licks off. It works better than an eye dropper. Once the hummingbird felt better, it would fly off, and sometimes come back and dive bomb him (after all, he was a large predator holding it).
We weren't able to find one hummingbird, though. Months later, we just found a pile of feathers behind a box.
As I said, we tucked the red cooler away in the shadows of the garage, took off the red ring that was hanging from the garage door opener string and replaced it with a washer, and moved every other red thing we could... except for the big red van, which really can't go anywhere. What would be going through a hummingbird's tiny mind: "Look at that humongous flower!"?
After we cleaned up the garage of all but one of the red items visible from the door, we've gotten far fewer hummingbirds. We had one this morning, however. She was flying around frantically, and there wasn't anything we could do for her. An hour later, we went out again, and she finally had come to rest on a long pole with a blade for cutting branches. The top of the branch-cutting tool is up near the ceiling, and it has a small ring for a rope near the top. The hummingbird was clinging firmly to that ring. It took a while to find her because she was facing the wall, and her dark back looked like part of the tool, but we were determined to find her so that she wouldn't become another pile of feathers! We could tell she was still in there because of her peeps, which were getting fainter and father apart.
Older son doesn't have any classes on Thursdays so, the last few weeks, he's stayed home and worked those days. We were so lucky he was home today! After younger son got that corner of the garage cleared out, older son got the pole off the wall. The hummingbird was actually so tired that she stayed on there while he carried it outside! I was very worried that she'd just start flying around frantically again.
It took three of us to take care of her: I had the hummingbird food (sugar water), older son fed her, and younger son held the pole steady. I don't have photos, of course, because we were too busy for that, but I think I will always have the memory etched on my brain. At first, she barely noticed the food, but she slowly started eating. They're so small when you see them still and up close. Her eyes stayed shut for a long time. She gradually started eating faster and faster, and we happily watched the bumps going down her little white throat. At first, it was swallow, swallow, swallow, peep, but, as she grew stronger, she stopped talking while she ate. She also fluffed out more as she felt better. Eventually, just a bit before she took off, she opened her eyes. It was wonderful to see her looking alert.
When she felt better, she flew off into the Japanese Maple in the front yard. It's a fairly dense tree so we couldn't see her. A few minutes later, we saw her flying around the front flowerbed happily eating and peeping.
For years, we've done special things on the first day of school. It's been pretty much our Not Back to School Day since we homeschool. This year, it snuck up on me. To me, it feels like summer has been about a week long.
The summer has been so full (the musical, visits, Asheville trips, older son going to Prague), that it has flown by. I was just getting to the part of the summer where you can say, "What a nice day to go to the pool!" (Or not.)
We're not doing anything particular on Not-Back-to-School Day today. In previous years, we've done picnics at Duke Gardens, hikes, trips to the science museum, lunch at the Mad Hatter Cafe, etc. Last year, younger son and I went to Frankie's Fun Park for go karts and arcade games.
The first day of public school was more noticeable when I was homeschooling all three. This year, older son started at NCSU while daughter was still home from UNC-Asheville. She's already settled into the room she rented over the summer so we didn't even bring her back before school started (sniff!). She headed back up with a friend. I've been hearing about college classes for a week and a half now. I'd forgotten that the local schools started today until younger son mentioned that he was one of the only kids at home on the court now (there's another homeschooling family a few doors down).
I asked if he wanted to do something special today. He looked at me with wide eyes. "Do I have to?!"
He's been in an amazing growth spurt the last year. He's grown almost six inches in fifteen months. He's only 13, and he's been mistaken for a 15 yo. He spends lots of time sleeping and lots of time by himself in his room. 13 has been a hermit-ish age for all three kids. Unlike the other two, he's often too tired to go anywhere (but the other two never grew this fast). He was even too tired to go to the Paperhand performance last night. If he were the oldest, I'd be worried, but I know, from experience, that this is just a stage and not to worry.
Instead of going somewhere special today, we'll have a nice quiet, special day - the sort he likes. He's been reading the book about the Udvar-Hazy Space Museum this morning (and making catapults out of Legos, and letting me try his remote control truck, and playing Kerble Space Program...). We'll watch more of last week's So You Think You Can Dance while we eat lunch. We're listening to a mix of music he likes - The Veronicas, the Slackmates, the soundtrack to Victor/Victoria, Ingrid Michaelson, and the soundtrack to Come Fly Away, the musical based on Frank Sinatra's songs.
I'm never sure which music he will or won't like (except that he dislikes country, doesn't care for folk, and only likes about 5% of rap).
He was walking around the house earlier and snapping his fingers in time to a Frank Sinatra song.
The writer in me says that I should stop there for this blog post. However, the musician in me threatened to beat up the writer in me if we don't include this song (younger son agrees). Here is Futura by the Slackmates:
"Mommy, there are white flowers starting to bloom outside your bedroom window!" younger son said to me, Sunday, with a meaningful look on his face.
We've always started our spring break from the formal part of our homeschooling when the dogwoods start blooming. It's the most beautiful time of year in central NC, and I'm usually really excited. We finish the break when the temperature starts hitting the 90's regularly. I noticed on Friday that the dogwood buds were starting to open, and I knew we'd be breaking soon.
It always feels strange to call it a "break," though. We're only breaking from the formal part of our homeschooling (grammar, and math). Younger son will still be doing plenty of reading, we'll be hiking, he's working on circuits in Minecraft (a game which has gobbled up the brains of three members of my family now), we'll be going to museums, etc. What it really means is more spontaneous time.
Usually, I look forward to spring break, gardening, and being outside more. I've found that I'm not this year, for the first time ever. I realized that, partly, it's because of how life has changed in the last two years. Last year was the first year that I was only homeschooling one child, but we still had plenty of things we wanted to do during break. This year, younger son is 13, or, as I put it, the hibernate-in-your-room age. I actually sometimes get more time to myself than I need now. Thinking about starting break this week felt like a huge void ahead, and that's not normal for me.
Sure, I have a list of house projects that I want to tackle, and I'm going to get started on those today,* but that kind of stuff doesn't excite me. Housework is what I do in the time squeezed around the interesting stuff. I'm also not as in touch with the outside as I usually am, probably because of having to focus so much on my body with the blood pressure stuff, so I'm surprisingly unexcited about the spring.
I went to Zumba this morning and came back to a quiet house. Younger son is up in his room doing Minecraft on the netbook. He says it's nice and cozy. Some evenings, the guys are all upstairs on computers, and I'm downstairs with two affection-deprived cats. They get really pushy. Lina is now sleeping next to me on the floor after I took her off of the keyboard a few times.
After years of homeschooling three kids - with someone always having something they wanted to do that involved me, either driving or doing things together, this feels like a vacuum.
I don't like it.
Dear husband and I talked about this on our walk yesterday afternoon. Younger son will still get plenty of time to himself, but I'm going to bring up things to do also. Yesterday, while older son and I were at church, dear husband and younger son went canoeing. Younger son had a wonderful time, particularly when he was challenging himself physically. This afternoon, we're going hiking nearby. We've been wanting to get back to the NC history exhibit at the museum in Raleigh. We're going to go to the zoo for the first time in years.
I'm going to stop at the garden center tomorrow to start some projects that will inspire me. I've been really missing learning choreography at dance classes so I'm going to learn the choreography in this video to Back It Up:
[That part was written on Monday. The rest I finished up Wednesday.]
It supposedly takes about three weeks to make a habit.
I was on the recent blood pressure medicine for almost two weeks, and, adding the week that I had side effects from it a few weeks prior, I've been dealing with the side effects for three weeks.
In those three weeks, I got very used to two things. First, pushing myself when I was exhausted, since I was exhausted all the time, and, second, just sitting and playing computer games when I wasn't pushing because I didn't care about reading, blogging, or, really, anything.
I've made both of those into habits.** I can't even tell normal tired anymore. When I was on the full dose of the med, I felt as exhausted as if I had the flu. When I was on a lighter dose, I felt like the day after the flu. But I didn't have the flu so I kept going and trying to do as much as I could make myself.
So the thought of taking a break? relaxing? - is very strange. Last night, I was exhausted at 11 pm. I did the dishes and the laundry and woke myself up enough that I couldn't fall asleep until 2:30 am.
There are times in your life when you have to push yourself, particularly when kids are little. Now isn't one of those times for me.
However, not pushing myself feels lazy. On the other hand, I think I might need to relearn how to relax, in some way that doesn't involve computer games, in order to try to get my blood pressure down.
So, it also doesn't feel like a "break" because I've gotten into the habit of just grimly forcing myself through the day.
* Anyone want a child-sized sleeping bag? Younger son grew out of it a few years ago.
** The other habit I got into was just sitting and staring at the table during meals while listening to everybody else talk. Even though the drug is long gone from my system, it's still difficult for me to get back into having conversations.
For about 17 years, I've been dropping kids off at summer camps. Because their ages are spread out over 11 years, I've always had someone to walk in to a camp. Today, I realized that younger son doesn't really need me to walk in with him.
Now, the camps he's taken in the past have required parents to walk their kids in - or they've had drop-off lines which take a long time so I usually park and walk. This one is a slightly more laid-back camp, and a lot of the kids just get dropped off at the sidewalk.
Yesterday afternoon, his group was one of the last to show up when camp was over. He's taking a super-geeky camp - Robotics and Chess. When the other groups were coming up the hill, I could pretty much tell that any that had more than 2 or 3 girls probably wasn't his. When he showed up, he told me that there weren't any girls in his group at all - except for the teenage, assistant counselor.
Next winter, he'll be a teenager. Already, our time of having younger kids is definitely past. He's grown so much this year. Last winter, I became the shortest person in the house.
He sprained his foot last week while roughhousing with friends. I tried to keep him at least somewhat busy with nature documentaries, going to see Cars 2, going out for pizza, etc. He's usually really active so having to sit around isn't easy for him. One of the friends that usually rides bikes/scooters/roughhouses/etc. with him came over while younger son was still on crutches. He asked if they could just sit outside and talk. That made me smile. Yesterday, they played chess.
We got groceries last Friday - or, more precisely, I ran around the store getting groceries while he sat on a bench at the front of the store and read a book. In the last year, he's become a wonderful help while grocery shopping. He pushes the cart, unloads it while I keep it from rolling downhill, charges across the parking lot to bring it to the cart return, and then leap/runs with great enthusiasm back to the van. I particularly miss the leap/run right now.
Not that everything is sweetness and light. He just mentioned the other day that he thinks spelling is stupid which is why he doesn't focus on or remember it. I always wondered why, when he can recount every detail of a nature documentary, spelling just slips through his mental fingers. If he thinks something is worthwhile, he can throw so much energy into it. If it's not worthwhile, he can't be bothered.
Reminds me of some other members of my family... [::::::looking around innocently and whistling::::::][Cough: gym class: cough]
He's got a good sense of rhythm, can sing well, and remembers most of the lines he hears at the community theater rehearsals (he goes when dear husband isn't home). He says that theater is my thing, not his. He did go and paint sets last Saturday. He had a wonderful time.
Will I walk in with him tomorrow?
His choice.
[Photo: Younger son and daughter sitting in front of the big tank at the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher.]
A Man for All Seasons ("That's a dancer's leg!")("His looks. I give you his looks.")
North by Northwest
