2 days in and nothing disastrous to report. It appears that the next big thing is Kindergarteners who can't stop telling me things. Ugh. Seriously, parents, make sure at SOME point your kid learns how to STOP talking before they get to the schools. Favor to me. Thanks.
The family is passing around a stomach bug right now, but I'm happy that we made it for quite a long time without major sicknesses.
It's time for the heat to stop. Fall, please come soon!
Matt
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
First Day Prayer
I thought about this last night and decided I should really post this. I go through some version of this every year.
God, thank you for the summer.
Thank you for putting me in a position to be able to spend so much time with all my family. Thank you for giving us the freedom to travel and experience new places, sights, and people. Thank you for all the memories which will continue to bind us together throughout our lives. Thank you for blessing me with a family in the first place - a family that is full of issues, weirdness, and struggle, but also full of love. Help me to continue to be the best father and husband I can be, and help me now to also return to being the best teacher, co-worker, and employee I can be. Thank you for giving me a job to go back to, and for making it a job that I truly enjoy. Help me compartmentalize my responsibilities so that one does not affect the other. Be with me and my family as we transition to a different way of living, but help us learn to enjoy and love the new realities as much as the old. Allow us to look forward to the next 'escape' without ignoring the small beauties and magic all around us every day. Let the wonder and joy of the day-to-day carry us through to the next big event.
Thank you God for the summer, and thank you for the upcoming Fall.
MS
God, thank you for the summer.
Thank you for putting me in a position to be able to spend so much time with all my family. Thank you for giving us the freedom to travel and experience new places, sights, and people. Thank you for all the memories which will continue to bind us together throughout our lives. Thank you for blessing me with a family in the first place - a family that is full of issues, weirdness, and struggle, but also full of love. Help me to continue to be the best father and husband I can be, and help me now to also return to being the best teacher, co-worker, and employee I can be. Thank you for giving me a job to go back to, and for making it a job that I truly enjoy. Help me compartmentalize my responsibilities so that one does not affect the other. Be with me and my family as we transition to a different way of living, but help us learn to enjoy and love the new realities as much as the old. Allow us to look forward to the next 'escape' without ignoring the small beauties and magic all around us every day. Let the wonder and joy of the day-to-day carry us through to the next big event.
Thank you God for the summer, and thank you for the upcoming Fall.
MS
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Official Farewell to Summer
Summer is now done for me. It was a good one. Work begins anew. New challenges. That's the way I like to think of it - something potentially bad that I can turn into something good. Challenges.
The next couple of weeks are the worst of the year - not because of the actual job - this first couple of days is actually pretty easy for me. But just readjusting to the life of work. Once I'm there and work feels 'normal' again, then I will be ready to enjoy the normality of it all. But until then, into the unsettled transition.
With added routine often comes added blog posts - easier to get on here and talk about stuff when I have a regular time to do it. Keep checking in. And hopefully you can start to see some more recent videos appearing on the youtube page soon.
Love life, even the parts you may not like so much.
MS
The next couple of weeks are the worst of the year - not because of the actual job - this first couple of days is actually pretty easy for me. But just readjusting to the life of work. Once I'm there and work feels 'normal' again, then I will be ready to enjoy the normality of it all. But until then, into the unsettled transition.
With added routine often comes added blog posts - easier to get on here and talk about stuff when I have a regular time to do it. Keep checking in. And hopefully you can start to see some more recent videos appearing on the youtube page soon.
Love life, even the parts you may not like so much.
MS
Monday, August 16, 2010
And so it goes
Last day off for me today. Two days of inservice and then the kids roll in. My head has starting running a lot faster lately...but that's really more out of habit than anything else.
Faith is going off to 1st grade soon - mixed feelings about that. This is the beginning of school really becoming a bigger influence on her than we are - it's been said that you need to teach your kids what you can by the time they're six, because then they belong to everybody. So we hope we have done well to get her to this point. At the same time, we can start to see in her that she's ready to get more than she can get just here. And I'm eager to see her become a fuller person.
Also hoping the twins can blossom going to preschool soon. I'm not too worried about that, I think it will be GREAT for them. And I am really hopeful that Mari will develop some good confidence in her 'school' abilities and break through into real reading soon with daily practice in preschool. I think she'll be so much happier once she makes that leap.
Basically, all is well, time is marching on, and life is still very much fun. Here's to life!
MS
Faith is going off to 1st grade soon - mixed feelings about that. This is the beginning of school really becoming a bigger influence on her than we are - it's been said that you need to teach your kids what you can by the time they're six, because then they belong to everybody. So we hope we have done well to get her to this point. At the same time, we can start to see in her that she's ready to get more than she can get just here. And I'm eager to see her become a fuller person.
Also hoping the twins can blossom going to preschool soon. I'm not too worried about that, I think it will be GREAT for them. And I am really hopeful that Mari will develop some good confidence in her 'school' abilities and break through into real reading soon with daily practice in preschool. I think she'll be so much happier once she makes that leap.
Basically, all is well, time is marching on, and life is still very much fun. Here's to life!
MS
Monday, August 9, 2010
Summer winding down
This is my last week of freedom before it's back to the grind. My yearly trend towards less and less stress to start the school year is continuing. This is starting to seem easier and easier. Hooray! Once or twice through my opening-day routine in my mind and I feel ready to go. Good for me and for my family.
I will of course miss all the free family time, but I am eager to get 'used to it' again. And this year should also be less stressful because we know what to expect now from Steph's job. (I know, I know, I am tempting fate with all this optimism...) AND, the twins are really becoming much less high-maintenance....or at least a less physically demanding form of high-maintenance, which is also a good thing.
In addition, I am ready for fall. This string of 90 degree plus days with unbearable humidity MUST end. We feel trapped in the house and can't wait to get out.
It has been a good summer. Lots of medium-to-small scale travel. Plans in the works for 2011 and 2012. Hopes for trips beyond that. And, at least I feel like we've had some good home time as well. This past week just chilling at home has been really really nice. It has certainly made my thinking of transitioning back to work much more smooth.
Robby has developed an amazing interest in and knowledge of, his ABCs. Hannah too, but not nearly as obsessively as Robby. Robby has also gotten a lot mellower - he had a really bad run of 2-ism for a while there. Still has his moments, but seems to be able to step off the crazy train a lot sooner now. Mari is starting to put letters together and actually read simple words. We're trying to practice every day, and she does get frustrated, but we're being patient and trying to set her up for success. She thinks that all kids can read as well as Faith (who's reading at a 4th grade level) and so when she compares herself to Faith she thinks she's no good. Poor Took. Faith, meanwhile, has shown a big interest in learning about the states over the summer, and has in the last few months become a pretty good Mario Kart player. We're proud of her for both, for different reasons.
Anyway, all is well in the family. Finances are still ridiculously tight, but we're getting ridiculously good at managing them. Steph hasn't had a paycheck since May, but we've planned ahead and had the money put away. I am proud of us for managing things so well.
Anyway, time for lunch, gotta go.
MS
I will of course miss all the free family time, but I am eager to get 'used to it' again. And this year should also be less stressful because we know what to expect now from Steph's job. (I know, I know, I am tempting fate with all this optimism...) AND, the twins are really becoming much less high-maintenance....or at least a less physically demanding form of high-maintenance, which is also a good thing.
In addition, I am ready for fall. This string of 90 degree plus days with unbearable humidity MUST end. We feel trapped in the house and can't wait to get out.
It has been a good summer. Lots of medium-to-small scale travel. Plans in the works for 2011 and 2012. Hopes for trips beyond that. And, at least I feel like we've had some good home time as well. This past week just chilling at home has been really really nice. It has certainly made my thinking of transitioning back to work much more smooth.
Robby has developed an amazing interest in and knowledge of, his ABCs. Hannah too, but not nearly as obsessively as Robby. Robby has also gotten a lot mellower - he had a really bad run of 2-ism for a while there. Still has his moments, but seems to be able to step off the crazy train a lot sooner now. Mari is starting to put letters together and actually read simple words. We're trying to practice every day, and she does get frustrated, but we're being patient and trying to set her up for success. She thinks that all kids can read as well as Faith (who's reading at a 4th grade level) and so when she compares herself to Faith she thinks she's no good. Poor Took. Faith, meanwhile, has shown a big interest in learning about the states over the summer, and has in the last few months become a pretty good Mario Kart player. We're proud of her for both, for different reasons.
Anyway, all is well in the family. Finances are still ridiculously tight, but we're getting ridiculously good at managing them. Steph hasn't had a paycheck since May, but we've planned ahead and had the money put away. I am proud of us for managing things so well.
Anyway, time for lunch, gotta go.
MS
Sunday, July 25, 2010
FINALLY, back home.
So so good to be back at last.
My workshop was positively amazing - one of the best education-related experiences of my life. Certainly the most unique, and quite possibly the oddest as well - but eye-opening and wonderful. I have a lot of work to do to implement some of these things into my own teaching, but I am looking forward to the challenge of doing so.
While I was away, I managed to get significantly more caught up on the backlog of family videos I needed to process. I can truly say that I am now less than a year behind. Actually getting completely up-to-date is unlikely, but I can live with the current lag.
So, just enough time to bask in the last days of summer before I go melt in my sauna of a classroom. I plan to make the most of it. Enjoy yourself everyone!
God bless,
MS
My workshop was positively amazing - one of the best education-related experiences of my life. Certainly the most unique, and quite possibly the oddest as well - but eye-opening and wonderful. I have a lot of work to do to implement some of these things into my own teaching, but I am looking forward to the challenge of doing so.
While I was away, I managed to get significantly more caught up on the backlog of family videos I needed to process. I can truly say that I am now less than a year behind. Actually getting completely up-to-date is unlikely, but I can live with the current lag.
So, just enough time to bask in the last days of summer before I go melt in my sauna of a classroom. I plan to make the most of it. Enjoy yourself everyone!
God bless,
MS
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Greetings from Macedonia, Ohio
Huh?
How'd that happen?
Okay, let's backtrack a bit.
Last post of any value was from like day 2 of vacation, right? Ugh. Over a week without posting. Not a good job on my part. All seems like ages ago. So let's see if we can recap.
Frankenmuth was great. Lovely little town, lots of neat shops and great food. Bronner's. Well, what can you even say about that? World's largest Christmas store, size of one and a half football fields...sounds like a nightmare of American excess and tack, right? Well, for all that, it's actually pretty tastefully done. Certainly kitsch, but...enjoyable in something quite a bit better than the typical highway accident/bad MTV guilty pleasure kind of way. Pleasantly surprised.
Trip to Mackinaw was not fun - Robby decided to get a 2-hour fever. Yup. Sunken eyes, howling screams, really hot...so bad that we asked at the office while checking in about the urgent care facilities in town...and then he was fine and was great the rest of the trip. No idea what was up with that.
So. Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground. An oddity to be sure. The place was HUGE, like 600 some sites. And sprawling. Took about 5 minutes to drive out of the place every morning. And bizarrely laid out. Long story short - because dad needs 50-amp hookups, their motorhome was located probably a quarter-mile or so from the trailer. So that complicated things quite a bit. Trying to get anywhere with my family and my dad's obsessive need to have a PLAN (love you dad, but it is an obsession) was certainly compounded by having to figure out who should drop who off and keep the car overnight. Messy. And the internet was HIGHLY unreliable. Which is largely what led to the absence of posts.
But we adjusted.
Mackinaw however, saw lots of highs and lows in family drama. The girls, bless their hearts, had some absolutely outrageously bad behavior. Robby also hit some new lows in 2-ism. We apologize to the citizens of Mackinac Island for the shrill screams of "MAMA" which resounded for a solid half-hour until Robby collapsed, facing the wrong way, exhausted in his stroller. I believe his screams could be heard across the straits to the U.P. Again, sorry everyone.
And I would be remiss and irresponsible if I didn't admit that the stress of all that got to me and made me act like a 2 year old at times too. But for all the stress and mess, we still managed some really good times there.
The return to the picnic spot at Whitefish Bay was nice, although quite different...and the prelude at Tahquamenon Falls was an unexpectedly big hit as well. Ate some great whitefish, ate some pasties (look it up if you don't know), found a great thing at a kitchen store called "Toad Sweat" - which is a brand of dessert hotsauce - absolutely KILLER on ice cream. Swam (or waded I guess) in Lake Huron, had some lovely campfires, and generally had a crazy, not at all relaxing, but ultimately fun, time. Continuing to lay the foundation for future trips to one day be less hectic and more spontaneous.
So, now the reason I'm in Macedonia, OH. Near the end of the week in Mackinaw, in one of the rare bouts of functional internet connection, I got a rather disturbing email, saying that the summer workshop I needed to take for my license renewal had been cancelled.
Panic time.
But the prof leading the class basically helped me work out arrangements to take the class in Cleveland instead (at very short notice for both of us) and the only option was for me to come home Monday, and turn around and drive to Cleveland the next afternoon.
So here I am.
For what it's worth, this is a great workshop I'm taking and I'm learning a ton which I hope I can integrate into my teaching soon soon soon. But it's intensive, 8-5 for 4 days. This is going to wear me out.
But, it's now quarter to 11 in a strange and not entirely nice hotel room, so I need to pack it in - another full day tomorrow.
Sorry again about being out of touch. Thanks for stopping by.
MS
How'd that happen?
Okay, let's backtrack a bit.
Last post of any value was from like day 2 of vacation, right? Ugh. Over a week without posting. Not a good job on my part. All seems like ages ago. So let's see if we can recap.
Frankenmuth was great. Lovely little town, lots of neat shops and great food. Bronner's. Well, what can you even say about that? World's largest Christmas store, size of one and a half football fields...sounds like a nightmare of American excess and tack, right? Well, for all that, it's actually pretty tastefully done. Certainly kitsch, but...enjoyable in something quite a bit better than the typical highway accident/bad MTV guilty pleasure kind of way. Pleasantly surprised.
Trip to Mackinaw was not fun - Robby decided to get a 2-hour fever. Yup. Sunken eyes, howling screams, really hot...so bad that we asked at the office while checking in about the urgent care facilities in town...and then he was fine and was great the rest of the trip. No idea what was up with that.
So. Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground. An oddity to be sure. The place was HUGE, like 600 some sites. And sprawling. Took about 5 minutes to drive out of the place every morning. And bizarrely laid out. Long story short - because dad needs 50-amp hookups, their motorhome was located probably a quarter-mile or so from the trailer. So that complicated things quite a bit. Trying to get anywhere with my family and my dad's obsessive need to have a PLAN (love you dad, but it is an obsession) was certainly compounded by having to figure out who should drop who off and keep the car overnight. Messy. And the internet was HIGHLY unreliable. Which is largely what led to the absence of posts.
But we adjusted.
Mackinaw however, saw lots of highs and lows in family drama. The girls, bless their hearts, had some absolutely outrageously bad behavior. Robby also hit some new lows in 2-ism. We apologize to the citizens of Mackinac Island for the shrill screams of "MAMA" which resounded for a solid half-hour until Robby collapsed, facing the wrong way, exhausted in his stroller. I believe his screams could be heard across the straits to the U.P. Again, sorry everyone.
And I would be remiss and irresponsible if I didn't admit that the stress of all that got to me and made me act like a 2 year old at times too. But for all the stress and mess, we still managed some really good times there.
The return to the picnic spot at Whitefish Bay was nice, although quite different...and the prelude at Tahquamenon Falls was an unexpectedly big hit as well. Ate some great whitefish, ate some pasties (look it up if you don't know), found a great thing at a kitchen store called "Toad Sweat" - which is a brand of dessert hotsauce - absolutely KILLER on ice cream. Swam (or waded I guess) in Lake Huron, had some lovely campfires, and generally had a crazy, not at all relaxing, but ultimately fun, time. Continuing to lay the foundation for future trips to one day be less hectic and more spontaneous.
So, now the reason I'm in Macedonia, OH. Near the end of the week in Mackinaw, in one of the rare bouts of functional internet connection, I got a rather disturbing email, saying that the summer workshop I needed to take for my license renewal had been cancelled.
Panic time.
But the prof leading the class basically helped me work out arrangements to take the class in Cleveland instead (at very short notice for both of us) and the only option was for me to come home Monday, and turn around and drive to Cleveland the next afternoon.
So here I am.
For what it's worth, this is a great workshop I'm taking and I'm learning a ton which I hope I can integrate into my teaching soon soon soon. But it's intensive, 8-5 for 4 days. This is going to wear me out.
But, it's now quarter to 11 in a strange and not entirely nice hotel room, so I need to pack it in - another full day tomorrow.
Sorry again about being out of touch. Thanks for stopping by.
MS
Monday, July 19, 2010
Apologies and long stories...
...are forthcoming. We are back. Everything is fine. I am leaving tomorrow by myself for Cleveland for 5 days. I will explain later. Vacation was great - internet was not. Glad to be home, sad to be leaving again so soon. Again, long story, I'll explain later.
Matt
Matt
Friday, July 9, 2010
Revisionist History
The nice thing about having such elaborate videos serving as the family memory storehouse is that you have the power to change the past. Therefore...
Yesterday is stricken from the record.
It was a rough day. We were tired, the kids were tired, no one was behaving, there were lots of problems. There will be no video or stills from the fiasco.
There was one bright spot. And that was the lovely and wonderful meal we had at Zehnder's. What a great place, we were so excited to come back, and it was even better than we remembered from 2006. Any time you're in this part of the world, you owe it to yourself to come and have a meal here. If you can do the family-style chicken dinner, go for it. Now, it aint cheap, but the good news is this - you probably won't have to eat breakfast or lunch the next day. Seriously. No joke.
So, today we will try again to have a good day. So far the kids are behaving, and we have no real plans other than to let the kids do some of the activities here at the campground (they're having a candy themed weekend so should be lots of fun).
Hopefully some good pics later. Thanks for stopping by!
Matt
Yesterday is stricken from the record.
It was a rough day. We were tired, the kids were tired, no one was behaving, there were lots of problems. There will be no video or stills from the fiasco.
There was one bright spot. And that was the lovely and wonderful meal we had at Zehnder's. What a great place, we were so excited to come back, and it was even better than we remembered from 2006. Any time you're in this part of the world, you owe it to yourself to come and have a meal here. If you can do the family-style chicken dinner, go for it. Now, it aint cheap, but the good news is this - you probably won't have to eat breakfast or lunch the next day. Seriously. No joke.
So, today we will try again to have a good day. So far the kids are behaving, and we have no real plans other than to let the kids do some of the activities here at the campground (they're having a candy themed weekend so should be lots of fun).
Hopefully some good pics later. Thanks for stopping by!
Matt
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Night before
Funny to think back a year ago - this was the night we had one of our nicest late-night cookout dinners - Buffalo Chili in the Badlands. Such wonderful memories. Hopefully we're about to make some more.
Tomorrow off to Frankenmuth and Mackinaw City for a week and a half. Quite a modest trip by Specter standards but fun nonetheless. I again am reminded of a previous trip - in 2006 we went to Mackinaw, back in our freewheeling days of discretionary income. We had a great time and while we knew we wanted to come back, we never thought it would be with 2-year old twins in tow.
I can remember that on that trip, while we were walking back from viewing Tahquamenon Falls, we passed a family going the other way...not sure how many kids, but at least four, all probably 8 and older, up to mid-to-older teens. They were impossibly happy and pleasant, the Stepford Family if you will - no trace of teen angst or annoyance, no sibling rivalry deteced...and we only saw them for a few seconds...but it seemed genuine.
I often think about that family and make them a goal for our own. How are we matching up? Well, we ain't from Pleasantville. Seriously. We got issues. But then again, we're Specters. We're not going to making any magazine covers for anything. But, in our own way, I'm pleased with how we're doing. Our kids can go 12 boring hours without watching movies in the car. Faith gets excited about finding license plates. They've been to more National Parks than I was at before I was 30, and...even the twins in their own way, are becoming good traveling Specters. Tonight when it was time for bed, they both resisted as they sometimes do...but then I told them we had a trip tomorrow, and they both stopped short...you could see them thinking about it...and then they happily went to bed, with Hannah saying "Go on trip, go on trip."
So I think...we're doing okay.
Stuff is all ready to be loaded in the trailer tomorrow morning - not a crazy early start, but hopefully on the road by 8. Check in in the coming days for updates from the road. Admittedly we have one minor problem...I can't find Rumplestiltskin anywhere - this is actually a cause for concern.
Matt
Tomorrow off to Frankenmuth and Mackinaw City for a week and a half. Quite a modest trip by Specter standards but fun nonetheless. I again am reminded of a previous trip - in 2006 we went to Mackinaw, back in our freewheeling days of discretionary income. We had a great time and while we knew we wanted to come back, we never thought it would be with 2-year old twins in tow.
I can remember that on that trip, while we were walking back from viewing Tahquamenon Falls, we passed a family going the other way...not sure how many kids, but at least four, all probably 8 and older, up to mid-to-older teens. They were impossibly happy and pleasant, the Stepford Family if you will - no trace of teen angst or annoyance, no sibling rivalry deteced...and we only saw them for a few seconds...but it seemed genuine.
I often think about that family and make them a goal for our own. How are we matching up? Well, we ain't from Pleasantville. Seriously. We got issues. But then again, we're Specters. We're not going to making any magazine covers for anything. But, in our own way, I'm pleased with how we're doing. Our kids can go 12 boring hours without watching movies in the car. Faith gets excited about finding license plates. They've been to more National Parks than I was at before I was 30, and...even the twins in their own way, are becoming good traveling Specters. Tonight when it was time for bed, they both resisted as they sometimes do...but then I told them we had a trip tomorrow, and they both stopped short...you could see them thinking about it...and then they happily went to bed, with Hannah saying "Go on trip, go on trip."
So I think...we're doing okay.
Stuff is all ready to be loaded in the trailer tomorrow morning - not a crazy early start, but hopefully on the road by 8. Check in in the coming days for updates from the road. Admittedly we have one minor problem...I can't find Rumplestiltskin anywhere - this is actually a cause for concern.
Matt
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