Tuesday 5: Back to School, Back to School...

Tuesday, again, and I’m writing in the middle of the day, due to the fact that I can’t comprehend getting off of the couch for the next thirty minutes. I did start the dishwasher first, so that sort of counts, right?

1. This morning, I took all four Little Explorers shopping for back to school supplies. They were mostly little monsters, fighting and begging and whining and more fighting. This is why I can’t fathom getting up off the couch. The upside is that, even when the other kids were hitting her and Amelia Earhart made this known to everyone in Target, and probably also everyone in the parking lot, even the ones with their windows up and radio on, I did not yell and mostly kept my cool. I’m pretty sure the whole experience reset my purgatory clock to zero. 

2. Arthur Dent has been a royal mess lately. He’s been waking up in the middle of the night and making sure to come into our room so that I can enjoy his company midway through my REM phase. The other night, he came in and so I promptly sent him to the bathroom. A few seconds later, a not even close to awake International Man of Intrigue stumbled to the bathroom. His response to being surprised by the bathroom being occupied at 4 am? “I really wasn’t expecting a line at that time of night!”

3. A couple of other weird highlights from Arthur Dent this week: The International Man of Intrigue had to put “yucky polish” (a nail polish that tastes bad to prevent finger biting, etc) on Arthur Dent’s TOES to keep him from biting his toenails. Arthur Dent also broke down in a hysterical crying meltdown when he randomly asked for ice cream- which we almost never eat- and was told that there wasn’t any in the house. For the next several hours, he could be heard to occasionally mutter in a very pitiful voice, “I just wanted some ice cream.” This kid keeps me on my toes, Fellow Adventurers.

4. I’m a little anxious about school starting back up. I’m equal parts relieved to have a break from the Little Explorers and crushed that I won’t get to spend all day with them. Arthur Dent will be in school during the morning, so it will just be Laura Ingalls Wilder and me for a few hours each day. I do feel like I have to up my meal planning and prepping game now that activities will be starting up and piano lessons have already moved back to right before dinner. Any suggestions as to how you keep on top of things?

5. Reading and Watching: We just started watching the Netflix original series Daredevil. It’s really good. I just finished reading “Dad is Fat” by Jim Gaffigan. I relate to him because we’re both fat and we both have a lot of kids and we’re both Catholic. I really enjoyed the book, even giggling out loud in parts. It was a little scatterbrained and choppy, though, perhaps making me Gaffigan-like in another way- the book felt more like a blog than a book. I’m not sure what I’m going to read yet. Any great suggestions? 

The Livingstones, I Presume

I know I’m a day late in posting. I think I’ve come down with the post vacation blues. I could be wrong, but the fact that I picked all the M&Ms out of a bag of trail mix leads me to believe it’s the doldrums. I'll make it up to you with a Wednesday Random Six. Forgive me, Fellow Adventurers?

1. When you count the people you love who aren’t blood relatives, who do you count? The Intrigues just took a ten day vacation with some people on our list. After ten days, they’re not only still on the list, but they've moved up a few spaces. We first met The Livingstones two combined kids ago, while living in Sri Lanka. They were present for many adventures, and were first featured on the blog in Monsoon Dinner Theater. As you age and your family changes, it’s harder and harder to find friends who mesh with you, especially entire families who mesh with your entire family. The Livingstones and The Intrigues are a perfect match. All four adults enjoy each other’s company in any given combination or pairing. All seven kids can wander off and play for hours without arguing. The downside of our friendship is that this little vacation we just shared took place in between The Livingstone's assignment in Sri Lanka and their next assignment in Zimbabwe. Distance is a bummer, as all you Fellow Adventurers who move on a regular basis understand.

2. The three Livingstone kids are all girls, so we’ll name them after the three fairies from sleeping beauty- Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Flora is six months younger than Gertrude Bell. Fauna is six months younger than Arthur Dent. Merryweather is, you guessed it, six months younger than Laura Ingalls Wilder. The adults have high hopes for a possible Intrigue-Livingstone merger in the form of a marriage twenty or so years down the road between Arthur Dent and one of the little Livingstones. Should that happen, all future holidays will be spent with the happy couple and they will never have to worry about splitting their time between families, since each set of in-laws will insist the other be present!

3. Whenever Mr. Livingstone and The International Man of Intrigue get together, they manage to invent games that involve throwing things. In Sri Lanka, when both families were quarantined with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, (more severe than its North American contagious disease counterpart) they invented a game called “CrocShoes,” which was a lot like horseshoes, but with more ridiculous rules. This time around, as we sat in the hallway of the hotel at Disney World, drinking beer and whispering to keep from waking the kids who were sleeping on the other side of the doors, Mr. Livingstone and The International Man of Intrigue invented “Ninja Card,” the basic gist of which is seeing who can fling a hotel key further. 

4. Speaking of putting babies to sleep, Laura Ingalls Wilder was less than cooperative upon being asked to sleep in a pack and play at the hotel and at the beach house. Fortunately, there’s an app for that. White noise apps are a thing, which is amazing and something every traveling parent should know!

5. Proof that The Livingstones and The Intrigues parent in a similar fashion came on one of our last days together. Mrs. Livingstone and I were standing in the kitchen, talking over coffee. She looked at me and said, “We’re just tuning it out.” I looked at her questioningly. She said, “You know, the babies?” It was then that I tuned into the fact that both Laura Ingalls Wilder and Merryweather were both splayed out on the kitchen floor, throwing temper tantrums. I can't end this without noting that The International Man of Intrigue described Merryweather as "squishy and soft, like a marshmallow." She really is a perfectly chubby one year old.

6. Yesterday, we hugged and fought back tears as we sent The Livingstones off in a van, weighed down with suitcases, to catch their flight to Zimbabwe. The Intrigues love you, Livingstones! Godspeed! If you have Livingstones in your life, take a minute to tell them you appreciate them!