"What is Love" by Catherine Marie Jensen

Cate is using Google docs as part of her media curriculum.  Every once in a while, she has an assignment that she needs to save and send to someone.  I am her recipient of such projects.  This one came today.  What a delightful thing to read...

What is Love?
By
Catherine Marie Jensen

Love is a great feeling. You feel like you just want to dance in the clouds. You wish you could have love when you want it, when you need it and when you feel lonely. Love is as big as your imagination. Love is better then chocolate cake with chocolate syrup and whip cream on top. Most of all, I love my love as if it is something important.

An Evening at Home

Now that I'm so far removed from any sort of single life (did I even have one?) it's nice how an evening at home like tonight can be better than an evening out.

We have had dinner; the dishes are washed, wiped and put away. Max is downstairs with Kyle, and I just finished sitting alongside Cate as she did her homework.

Cate's homework this evening was a worksheet on fractions along with word work and 30 minutes of reading. Kyle and I are a tag team duo when it comes to reviewing her work; Kyle is on math detail, I am on writing detail. The word work exercise today was to take five of her spelling words and break them down into smaller words--think 'Boggle.' So in this case, one word was 'president.' One goes with: rip, dent, is, sip, rip, end, pen, rent, side, ripe, rest, tender, drip, ripe, etc. I can't contain myself. I watch her write down two-, three-, some four-letter words and then I go into charades or fill-in-the-blank questions to get her to figure other words out. I have to wonder how much 'help' a parent should give their child to complete their homework to the best of their ability. What value or lesson am I giving her when she's basically writing down the words I come up with that she figured out through my clues?

While I was sitting with Cate at the dining room table, Kyle came upstairs to tell us Max was reading a Calvin and Hobbes book out loud and came across the strip where Calvin wanted to pretend to be two-dimensional. Max paused for a quick moment, then said, 'but Calvin already is two-dimensional; he's in a book!' What a smart, yet literal goofball.

So while Max is reading and having profound thoughts, Kyle works on laundry. The washing machine's rhythmic 'whirr-whirr-whirr' sound is making its way upstairs and it's almost enough to put me to sleep. Every once in a while I can hear little Max chattering away.

Cate has settled down for her reading time. Yesterday, I bought a couple of books for her--a simple biography of Anne Frank for a book report that needed to be done, and "The Diary of a Young Girl." For whatever reason, Cate has already loaned out "The Diary of a Young Girl" to one of her classmates. While I'm fine with Cate loaning out one of her books, I'd certainly rather she wait until she's read it first. So instead of reading her new book, she is re-reading a fairy book that is two grades below her level. I guess I should just be glad she's reading quietly on her own.

Max will eventually be sent upstairs to go to bed. He'll hop up onto where I'm sitting, cuddle into my arms and practically purr. His hands are cold from being in the basement which surprises me a little. I could let him fall asleep in my lap, but then I wouldn't get anything else done. So I have taken to slowly counting to ten. Once I get to ten, he is ready to take my hand, go to his room and get tucked in. I will remember to grab Kyle's ipod and play the Rio soundtrack for him. After a kiss on his forehead, he turns over and burrows further under blankets and will soon be fast asleep. He has a night light that's never on and he likes the door closed.

After the second time Cate comes out of her room telling me she forgot to do something, she will finally stay in her room for the rest of the night. Her ipod will be hooked up to her speaker and I will be able to clearly hear the songs from 20 feet away in the living room. I have no idea how she can fall asleep when the music is that loud. She still prefers her door to be left open a little and a night light dimly illuminates one corner of her room.

The kids are now in bed. It's nice and quiet. The washer has done whirr-whirr-whirring one load and now it's the dryer's turn to tumble. Since I've been sitting here typing away, I've noticed I'm chilled. Time to get a blanket. I don't have anything in particular to do this evening and it's rare to find something interesting enough on TV for me to tune in for, so I'll grab the new biography of Queen Elizabeth II and flip a page or two. Kyle's got some TV program on downstairs and he'll continue to move the laundry. Hopefully, my work email will be quiet for a while and I'll learn how 'Lilibet' comes to meet and marry Philip.

Eventually, I won't be able to keep my eyelids open anymore and I'll fall asleep on the loveseat. Kyle will peek in and chuckle to himself as I'm snoring and drooling away. He'll lean over and ask me if I'd rather stay on the loveseat or go down to bed. Depending on how coherent I am, I will likely end up stumbling my way downstairs and slink right into bed. The next morning, I'll vaguely remember how I got there, but hopefully I'll have slept so soundly that I will wake up remembering my dreams, which is always a pleasant way to start out a new day.

Ahh, and then the cycle repeats again in some way, shape or form...

I write this because I'm often too preoccupied with other thoughts in my head that I truly don't slow down and remain in the moment.  The mental list of things to do, things I've put off doing, things I wish I could do, worries of the day / week / month / life can easily derail any momentum I might have and pull me down and away from the people who love me most.  But when I took a step back to just 'be' and account for how just an evening at home can be fulfilling for the soul, it made me thankful for what a lucky girl I truly am.  I hope everyone can take a moment to just 'be' and be thankful for the simple and good things that happen in our lives today.  In this moment.  Now.

My last day of school

This was an awesome year of school. This year I met 2 new friends,#1 Nikko, she has black hair, and she's the one in the blue dress by me (Cate).#2 Nikko's sister, Addison. She's the one behind me & Nikko. Nikko & I live close by each other, so we walk to & from school together & she will be my new BFF. Nikko will be my new BFF because my other BFF (Bella) is going to a new school, but Nikko will stay at Kenny school so that is why Nikko will be my new BFF through the rest of 2011 and 2012.

My mom says I have to write down my three favorite things about the school year:
#1 I really liked my second grade art projects.
#2 I liked the new books in media.
And #3 I really liked Ms.Hunter, my second grade teacher.

Back to School and a New Adventure

Cate went back to school this week. It's nice she's still excited to get back to school. I can't remember when I started dreading the first day of school--I hope that day is still a long way off for Cate.

She saved her new favorite dress for the big day. It's a jumper that was made by fabric Grandma Jane brought from Alaska. The fabric has all sorts of different colored galoshes printed on a black-ground. Grandma Jane and Grandma Katie sewed up the dress and included a short ruffle hem. Cate certainly looked adorable.

The first days of school seem to be going well. Her "BFF" Bella is in her room and several new children because the other local community school was dissolved in June.

After school on Mondays, Cate will be taking her first tap / ballet class. She's been waffling whether she wanted to take dance class for a while and she finally piped up the day before the final registration open house was to be offered.

I think she is the only one in her class with no prior dance class experience, but for her first class, I thought she did pretty darn well picking up on terms and positions.

She looks darling, if I do say so myself.

A whole lot of reading will be going on here!

Yesterday was the spring carnival at Cate's school. There were fun activities for kids to participate in such as the typical bean bag toss, the lollipop pull, and toss the pig. The kids were also able to enjoy the always popular jumping air castle and face-painting.

There was a good variety of food options, raffle, live music and a silent auction for gift baskets that each grade pulled together based on selected themes. Some of the themes were: movie night, the backyard gardener, game night, others I can't remember and the basket I had the winning bid for, "We Love to Read!" which was chock-full of goodies.

When everything got pulled out, we counted up 58 books, a book light, a bookstore certificate, coffee, tea, Bananagrams game, alphabet stickers, alphabet beads, a project book and a fantastic tie blanket I'm presuming was made by one of the parents. We got a fantastic deal for so many goodies!

This acquisition is especially timely because Cate is really ramping up her passion for reading. To keep some motivation up to read all summer long, I offered her $1 for every book she reads that's out of the basket we just got. That's a mighty fine take, I think.

I want to be sure she keeps her reading up early, so she grows into a life-long avid reader. Here's hoping for a fantastic imagination-filled summer!

She's on her way...

Some changes have been going on in our larger family. Mom and Dad sold their house and we moved them out of 4408 this past weekend. Until they move into their new home, they are staying with my sister Jolene. But that's for a different post.

Since Cate has been in school, she has had mixed up weeks of where she goes when school is over. Three days she goes to the after-school program; one day she is picked up by Grandpa Ken and Tuesdays have been bus days. Until this week. Today is the first day Mom came over to our house to watch the kids. And Cate couldn't be more excited.

We've been building up to this moment for a long time. Today is the first day Cate is getting to and from school by herself. Ever since Grandma and Papa sold their house, we figured there would be some transition time and the possibility of Grandma watching the kids at our house was a high probability. As soon as we told Cate she wouldn't be taking the bus on Tuesdays, she asked if she could walk home from school. We said we'd think about it.

So last night we agreed she could do it. Then she upped the ante and asked if she could use her scooter to transport herself. I agreed thinking that she would get to and from school that much quicker.

This morning, she was up when her alarm went off and did everything she was supposed to do in order to get an early start. I wrote the note to her teacher informing her that Cate was going home to her Grandma--by herself. I remembered to include the home number just in case.

As we made our final preparations--scooter-check! helmet-check! lock-check! key for lock-check! Oreos-check!--I gave her one final pep talk:

Me: Okay Cate, remember...come straight home when school's out.

Cate: I know, Mom.

Me: And if your friends invite to play at the playground, politely say no.

Cate: I know, Mom.

Me: And come down the street you said you would because that's where we told Grandma you would be coming from.

Cate: I know, MOM!

Me: Okay. Be good and be safe. I love you!

Cate: Uh-huh. Bye!

And away she went, scootering down the street. A straight shot to school. Only two blocks. Watching her confidently go took my breath away. I don't know who grew up more this morning--her or me.

Icky-sicky

It's great that winter is moving into spring, but with the weather fluctuations we've had in recent weeks, we've got three sick family members under one roof.

Max and Kyle are dealing with colds. I can not believe how much can come out of Max's nose at one time. Ew!

Cate just can't seem to get rid of her pneumonia. We were in Urgent Care a couple of Thursdays ago; got a scrip for a five-day dose of antibiotics which didn't do the trick. We were back at Urgent Care this past Thursday where we spent three hours. Her condition had worsened and she added a double ear infection to her woes. I can not believe the amount of drugs they put in her little body in the time we were there.

Our at-home treatment is pretty crazy. She has one daily dose of steroids, one tablet, two daily doses of antibiotics, one double dose of a morning nebulizer treatment, followed by single dose nebulizer treatments three times throughout the day.

She also gets a chocolate kiss for taking her liquid steroid medicine because it tastes so gross.

Being so sick so many times is beginning to take a toll on her school attendance. I think her absence count is up to 20 days. I think I will jump for joy when the year comes that she is awarded with a perfect attendance certificate. Thankfully, she is a smart girl and thankfully her teacher is thoughtful to deliver Cate's homework to us. I just wish she was focused enough to bust through her work instead of breaking down and whining.

Per my friend's suggestion, I think it's time I start looking for a pulminologist to see if there are other treatment options or a more accurate diagnosis for Cate.

Knock on wood, I will remain healthy because I've been out of the office so much for the kids' illnesses, I really can't afford to be out of the office because of my own illness.

Here's hoping you are enjoying good health!

Student of the Month-Grade 1

Catherine was recognized as a Student of the Month at school this morning. By the end of the year, all students will be a Student of the Month. This month, each teacher chose to recognize students who demonstrated exemplary responsibility in the classroom.

Catherine was glowing with pride.

I'm pretty sure she had the largest number of supporters at the assembly: me, Max, Aunt Jo, Grandma Katie, Grandpa Ken, Grandma LaVonne. Max totally enjoyed the music program and the applause for the students as their names were called. Apparently, at one point, he asked Grandma Katie why I wasn't clapping, so I ended up joining in on the fun.

My camera's battery crapped out on me (again!) and so these are from my phone.

In case you encounter Cate

...she wants to be called Catherine, not Cate. Ever since she recently learned how to spell C-a-t-h-e-r-i-n-e, she has decided to be a "Catherine" versus a "Cate". I got called out by her this evening while we were at a school open house for prospective families. I pointed her out as Cate while she was drawing at the chalkboard. She overheard and corrected me saying, "Not Cate, it's CATHERINE!"

Whoa.

First Grade Homework

Cate is settling into the school schedule. A good deal of her closer friends are in the same classroom. She goes to school happy and she comes home happy, but with not much more commentary other than, "good." when asked how her day was. Her teacher seems to be a woman who isn't going to take any crap and intends to run a tight ship. She's the right teacher for Cate, spunky as she is. Cate's after-school schedule is mixed-up, just like last year. Depending on the day she is in the after-school program, taking the bus to Grandma and Papa's house or being picked up by Grandpa and Grandma.

New this year is homework. From the first couple of weeks, it appears at least in the early months, the homework will be to practice spelling words. I sat with her for the first time last Sunday working on her five spelling words: at, cat, bat, sat, mat. Pretty simple instructions: write each word three times, then write a total of five sentences using one word per sentence. An example was also sent home so parents could review and correct the child's work as necessary. One would think that since the child was given very clear instructions, it would be a relatively simple project. Uhm, no. Almost an hour and several temper tantrums later, she finished the project. I vowed never to wait until Sunday evening again to have Cate complete her homework.

Unfortunately, with our packed weekend, she didn't sit down until Sunday evening again, but the same exercise with five new words took about half the time.I am impressed with some of the more complex sentences she wants to construct and / or the sentences she can write by herself. Last week, she could've written, "I have a hat." Rather, she wanted to write, "My hat is green and red and purple." This evening she wrote two complete sentences without any help from me, which I thought was pretty cool.It does concern me that, in first grade, she already doesn't like doing homework. I don't think I started to dislike doing homework until fifth grade.This is going to be a long year.

Cate's First Day of First Grade

Is summer as we know it already over? It feels like last month I was taking Cate's first day of kindergarten picture in front of the house. Oh well, one can't stop time, I guess.

So here we are, on the other side of summer.And here's Cate's standing very tall and proud to be in first grade. She is no more the newbie of the school. She is already excited to be a mentor to those wide-eyed 5-year-olds that looked scared out of their wits coming just short of crying for their mommas.

She has reunited with many of her friends from last year that will be in her classroom this year as well. Last Thursday, she met her new teacher and is terribly impressed that Mrs. Livermore's first name is....wait for it....Hermione. Yep. Hermione Livermore. This is real life, baby. You couldn't make it up any better than that.

I'm rather forgetful. Those of you who know me won't be surprised to learn that I thought I had registered Cate for her after school program, but I didn't. So now she's on the waiting list. And the district's transportation did not do me any favors by not assigning Cate a bus stop for her one afternoon a week drop-off at Grandma and Papa's house. That onus is on the district. But how could they possibly take note of only one afternoon a week bus stop request among thousands of grade school students.

So, Cate will have an extra special first day of school today. She will be coming back to work with me when I pick her up at the end of the school day. She couldn't be more excited. And so am I.

I'm looking forward to hearing all about her first day of first grade. It should be fun!

Cate's School Fall Festival

Cate had a great time last Thursday evening at her school's fall festival. She was excited to see so many of her friends at the event. I felt like a third wheel (in a good way!) throughout most of the evening as she wandered off and I kept a sufficient distance so as not to hamper her fun with all the activities. This year's theme was "Fun on the Farm" so we got into the spirit and dressed up for the occasion.

Cate dancing in a do-si-doh

On a saddle

The two cowgirls

Princess Team was SO yesterday!

Me: So Cate. Did you invite Gracie to join the Princess Team today?
Cate: No.
Me: Why not?
Cate: Because I'm not part of the Princess Team anymore. I'm friends with Anthony today.

Oh no.

If I thought being in a clique was going to be an issue, I think I now have bigger fish to fry. She's dumping her best gal pals for a boy already.

The Princess Team Saga Begins

I'm home with Cate today...it seems we can't quite get rid of the guck that is not-quite pneumonia. When I informed her she was staying home from school today, she thought out loud if her Princess Team would wonder where she was today. I informed her that I called the school so her teacher and classmates know she won't be there today. Then I proceeded to ask her about her Princess Team.

I learned that Cate is the Queen Mother and Vera, Isabel, Abbey, Najah, Evie, Alexia and Sophia are princesses. She then said that Gracie is not on the Princess Team.

Great, she's the leader of her first clique.

Me: Why isn't Gracie part of the Princess Team?
Cate: Because she hasn't asked to be on the team yet.
Me: Gracie shouldn't have to ask to join and that,as Queen Mother, you should remember to invite all of the girls to be on the Princess Team. If Gracie says she isn't interested in joining the Princess Team, then that's fine, but at least you invited her to join.

Cate thought about it and then asked, "Well, is that what happened in Sleeping Beauty?" I had to think about it for a second, and she continued, "You know, when Maleficient wasn't invited to the party for Princess Aurora, she got really mean?" I replied, "That's exactly what it's like. You never know, if the King and Queen had invited Maleficient, then maybe she would've been nice instead of having her feelings hurt."

She's processing...perhaps we'll see part two tomorrow.

Hunting for Leaves

It was a gorgeous autumn day here in Minnesota and we had the perfect activity to enjoy the sun-drenched, high 60s day. Cate brought home a bag and a note from school instructing us to collect fall leaves for upcoming projects. So we also armed Max with a bag and piled in the car.

We drove over to the Mississippi River Road and hit the high trail along the bank. It didn't take long to fill both bags. I got a few photos along the way. There is no possible way I could capture the incredible beauty of the robust colors, but it sure was fun trying.

An interesting side note from our walk: Kyle is not as confident as I am, but I swear to goodness, we walked opposite Frances McDormand, her husband Joel Coen, and their son Pedro along the path. I felt even more confident after I looked them up on http://www.imdb.com/. It is extremely reasonable given Coen was born in Minneapolis and the Coen brothers are currently filming here in the Cities. I said "hi" as we passed them and Frances smiled and nodded. Whoo! Our almost-brush with fame...

Three Days In, Two Days Out

I guess cold season couldn't get to us soon enough. We are already on round two of colds in less than 4 weeks. With Cate's pneumonia and Max having a fever now, it's three days into the work week and I've been out two days.

Conceptually, working from home is a great benefit. It is not as fabulous when the kids are sick, but not sick enough to be bed-bound. But having this opportunity to stay home with my sick kid gives me some peace-of-mind that I don't have to anguish over priorities one way or the other.

Thankfully, I have an awesome boss and crew at work who have been managing things in my absence. The Blackberry work armed me with can be my best friend or my greatest enemy. Situations such as Monday and today deems it my best friend. I can dash off a quick reply or direct action through email and feel like my day at home is not completely stalling progress at work. Tonight, once the children are in bed, I can also log on to the work network and get some more substantial work done.

It's not perfect, but it works well enough.

Max and I went to pick up Cate from the after school program earlier than usual so we could get her home for her nebulizer treatment before picking up Kyle downtown. Max has fun fitting into the students' cubbies perfectly. Here are the two rascals cheesing it up.

After dinner, we headed out to Target. Cate has been so wired up from her steroid medication that I commented to Kyle on the way home, "I keep reminding myself that we won't be able to get hardly a syllable out of her when she's thirteen, so I'm trying to appreciate her constant chatter today!"

It seems the little man's fever has subsided and we can back down on the neb treatments for Cate. Looks like I'll be back in the office for the next couple of days. Whoo-whee!

Sandwich anyone?

I need your advice...Cate can be a picky eater (shocking, I know!). Knowing she eats her packed lunch from home has been hit or miss. For the past three days, she has brought home the leftover sandwich with only two or three barely recognizable nibbles out of it. I also pack either applesauce (the only "fruit" she will eat) or vanilla yogurt (the only flavor she will eat) and occasionally one other thing, such at pretzels or cookies.

I make sure she helps make the decision of what goes into her lunch and ask her to promise she will eat everything. As you can imagine, the pretzels or cookies always get eaten and I presume the applesauce or yogurt are fairly well taken care of. Since the pretzels and cookies are always eaten, but the sandwich is not, I have taken those out for now. So she is left with two things for her lunch.

I also occasionally send her Spaghettios and meatballs which she does a pretty good job eating. I sent her Lunchables a couple of times and that was an absolute disaster. And I'm not sure she would find anything she would like to eat from the cafeteria selections.

So...do you have any advice for how I can get her to eat the right things I pack in her lunch? Do you / did you have trouble with your kids eating their lunch at school?

Ahhh...Spork! Update

Mark this on your calendar, people--
This morning I bought a box of plastic spoons for Cate's school lunches.
I love my daughter.

Ahhh...Spork!

So far, we have been batting 1.000 for packing Cate's lunch for school. It's generally a sandwich, along with yogurt or applesauce and a cookie. She gets her milk and silverware at school.

For whatever reason, Cate really doesn't care for the sporks. Every night she begs to bring a spoon from home. I keep telling her that using a spork is a time-honored tradition in the history of eating lunch at school. In fact, the morning I went with her to the cafeteria to pick up lunch, I got to see the spork in all its "for-commercial-use" glory. I swear the silverware packet is still from the original bulk order shipped circa 1980-something.

Who's the spork dork now?


Got any spork memories you'd like to share?

Other things from this past week

It's been a while between posts and things have been pretty busy around here.

Monday was our niece Thora Beth Jensen's first birthday party. It was celebrated during a waffle breakfast. She wouldn't even touch the whipped cream on the waffle because she doesn't like to get dirty. I foresee an easy potty-training phase for Kurt and Amy.

Last Tuesday, I attended my first Parish Pastoral Council meeting. I have signed up for a three-year term. Kyle is opting to refer to me as Madam Councilwoman instead of Madam Secretary. Ha!

Wednesday night, Cate enjoyed celebrated her cousin Matthew's 5th birthday by going to the Park at MOA with him. He didn't want to go on any of the rides, so she went on them without him. Afterwards, Matthew's mom hosted a party for him at McDonald's.

Thursday marked Cate's first day of school which was incredibly successful.

Also on Thursday, an announcement was made at work regarding yet another position change for me. I am swapping positions with a counterpart who will take over Email Marketing. Effective immediately, I am now the Manager for Online Programming which oversees the promotional presence and on-site search optimization for our website. I have a team of three which will soon increase to four. I am reporting to a guy I have worked for in a previous position, so I know exactly what to expect in that regard.

Friday night, my back went out while I was hoisting Max into bed by his diaper butt. Fortunately, Kyle hadn't left the house yet, so he helped me out and got the kids to bed.

Saturday, we entertained Kyle's parents and aunt for dinner. It wasn't the most flawless evening in the world. We barely got the house "fake-cleaned"; we hadn't started our food until they arrived; Jane couldn't eat 2/3 of what we prepared; Max played his usual antics of not cooperating at bedtime. After our guests left, I started having back spasms that I was more than willing to exchange for labor pains.

Today we stayed home and watched a lot of NFL at home while eating heartily. I promise to start counting my points again tomorrow.

And here we are, closing out one week and looking forward to another. Hopefully it will slow down soon. But somehow, I doubt it.