Author: Robin Chartier

balls in the air

I could probably go into a later in life career in the circus since I have become a professional juggler. It’s all good stuff, just a lot of it. At the beginning of each year I always joke that I have too many kids when it comes to filling out 4xs the paperwork, 4xs the sports, 4xs the driving, and 4xs the appointments, meetings and everything else we’ve been doing lately. Love them all, but I do have to compulsively check my calendar and figure out which child is where and where they need to go each day. If I created one of those Criminal Minds wall maps with strings leading from people to events and criss crossing back and forth I would look like a crazy person, but it might help me remember!

This week was Back to School week. Three Middle/High School students, two parents. It’s a fun event in that you follow your child’s schedule through the 2 day block schedule — Eight 5 minute periods back to back. Josh took Calvin’s schedule and I split time between Carter and Caleb’s teachers. 16 classes but only 8 choices. Each block was a decision: If they were new and teaching a core subject, I went to that class. If I met them the previous year, I skipped them, unless they were one of my favorites and then I went to tell them how happy I was that my child had them for a teacher. I had my dual schedules laid out and went back and forth with a pen, deciding who to cut. It was a good time, but I was beat, since I had left home at about 10am that morning and at 7pm still hadn’t been home all day.

Then the following night was Camille’s Open House and thankfully, I only had one to manage. She showed me all over her classroom, and then we went home and celebrated Carter’s birthday. We ended up skipping Caleb’s piano lesson because as we were walking out the door he burst into tears saying, “I always miss the fun stuff while I’m at piano lessons!” Good grief kid. Just speak up next time. It’s group lessons, 3 blocks from our house. You can skip a class. Besides, you only started 6 weeks ago so you hardly have missed “all the fun stuff.” We had one person over for dinner on Sunday and you had to eat a lamb chop on the way to class. Sorry that was so traumatic for you.

We did not have lamb for Carter’s birthday (thanks for the laugh Mom), we ate what he likes: bacon, eggs and sausage. And cake. And ice cream. We’ll have his real birthday breakfast this weekend when our friends from Oman are in town for a visit.

What else am I juggling? I’m hosting a women’s Bible study at my house that started this week. We’re meeting over lunch and everyone brings their own food, so it’s not hard. It just happened to be on Carter’s birthday/Open House/piano day this week so it was a lot to manage this time. As long as the cable that connects the computer to the TV works so I can run the video, all will be fine. (It’s a fiddly connection so it could be an issue.)

Camille has been extra tired this week. She’s happy in the mornings, but I can tell she is finished after school. I’m happy we have the week off next week to recover. I was at open house and Calvin was babysitting. He sent me this video while I was in Social Studies asking, “what do I do?” He put her to bed and she was asleep before I got home at 8pm.
Falling asleep on the way home from school

Calvin is almost finished with braces! He went on Monday for an adjustment and his ortho said to come back in 10 more days and he might get them off then. Happy day. Less $$$ out and less appointments to keep track of.

Camille is still rocking the kindergarten runway.  I never know what style she is going to choose each day.

Showing off her new basketball uniform

These were all from this past week, plus on picture day, she wore her dirndl. I love that she wears whatever she wants with no fear of what others might think. I hope she keeps that confidence. 
And I found a better race photo of Caleb from last week. I think he said his time was 26 minutes for a 5 K. Faster than his mama! 
This weekend we get to reunite with friends and I hope to have some time to relax with them at the British club in between Kid’s church on Friday and the first round of basketball games on Saturday morning before they head home on Saturday night. Trying to keep all my balls in the air! 

Catch-up

You would think with the kids all in school I would have more time to write, but somehow I’m finding I have less time. Life has been a blur. 
Waiting for the bus with her faithful friend (who sneaks off when the bus pulls up to rummage in neighborhood dumpsters — then I end up chasing him down in bare feet and pjs. Lovely.) 
I’m hoping that the busyness is due to everything starting up again for fall. It seems like I’ve had a lot of meetings and a bunch of emails and all my free time is spent recovering from exercising instead of doing something fun. 
On Thursday the base held a 5k run to commemorate 9/11 and Caleb wanted to participate. The boys were going to race with their cross country team (and had their driver to take them), but Caleb really wanted to run too so I got up at 5am to get him there. See him in the front row at the start? (green shirt, behind his friend in the gray) I guess racing etiquette doesn’t mean much to an eager 11 year old. He was thrilled, but I was wiped by 11am and ended up taking a 3 hour nap. That’s where that day disappeared. 

Another day I picked Camille up instead of having her ride the bus. As I was waiting around before they were dismissed, I saw her walking across the yard with her classmates. She seems much older since starting school. And much more talkative! Josh and I figure she probably only says 4 words all day so she’s ready to burst by the time she gets home. She barely stops talking between then and bedtime. 

Thursday = fun day, cooking day, and treasure box day (she always picks candy, shocker.)
I was picking her up because all 3 boys were going on the Teen Retreat with the base youth group. Caleb isn’t a teen, but it was for Middle and High School. The retreat was all weekend at a really nice hotel — Caleb and Carter came home talking about how they had a TV in their bathroom and they were taking baths and watching rugby. They all had a great time. It was strange to just be a threesome for the weekend. It was so quiet!

She’s doing great adjusting to her new schedule. We’ve only had a few 6pm, fall asleep in the car episodes. She’s going to bed much easier because she knows she has to get up early. Thank God I can finally reason with her. 

Big girl started basketball, just like her older brothers. She was very excited to pick out her outfit for her first practice. She can’t dribble well and she can’t shoot, but she has a huge grin the entire time, so that’s something. I’m sure she’ll have 3 eager coaches as soon as they watch her play her first game this weekend. 

Camille had today off of school so we walked to the grocery store together. Just like old times. 

We bought her headband the other day when we were shopping for a birthday present for a friend. She loves the multi-colored braid and kept telling her brothers, “I dyed my hair.” I’m sure that phase is coming. 

We walked to our local grocery store to see if they had any of the local lamb for sale so we could grill lamb chops for dinner. They had just gotten in several — we walked past the delivery van on the way in. A regular white van with stacked carcasses filling the cargo area. It didn’t look like any sort of refrigeration was going on, but no worries, as we would be eating it in only a few hours. We told the guy we wanted lamb chops and he cut them out of the whole body. Super sharp knife, cut away both shoulders, then separated the ribs from the body and cut them up for us. Camille was fascinated: “That’s a sheep?” 

I’ve got the lamb, she carries the bread. 

I only have to finish out this week and then we have a full week vacation for Eid — hallelujah!

A new year, a new plan

Three weeks into the school year and I’m getting used to the 6:30 am wake up, but I have to set 3 alarms to keep me on track. 6:30 is to knock me out of my sleep, 6:45 is to remind me that I need to actually get out of bed and make sure Camille is awake so I can help her get dressed and eat, and finally 7:05 is the “go outside because the bus could come at any minute” signal. The boys wake up at 6 or 6:15, but I’d rather have her get a few more minutes of rest and she sets everything out the night before so our morning routine is fast. That’s my girl.

So far so good. Only a few tears in the morning (not mine) as Camille has been really tired on a few of the days, but she has pulled it together every day before the bus comes. Then I go back to bed for 45 minutes and read, pray/nap (every time I pray I fall asleep so I decided to make it a thing), or write this blog post before 2 more alarms remind me that it’s time to get back up and then time to get in the car to head to CrossFit. Yes, I’m still doing that 5 days a week. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it so that’s probably as good a review as you’ll ever get from me. I’ve made it a commitment that I have to keep so I don’t have to make the decision every day: “Do I go and work out?” Because my answer to that would be “No! Stay home and lie in bed and read this book or drink more coffee and knit while you watch TV.”

As soon as I had the above worked out, Calvin and Carter came home talking about Cross Country starting up. Which starts at 5:30 every morning. For the past 2 years we’ve been taking Calvin to school at crackodawn o’clock for soccer and basketball, but each year the seasons seem to get longer and the time seems to get earlier. I joked last year that I was going to hire a driver and spare myself the pain.

Three weeks into the school year with months of 5:15 departures stretched out in front of me? We hired a driver. Yep, just call me Expat Mom. I have a house cleaner and a car washer (and a pool guy and yard guy paid for by the landlord) so why not add to my household staff? Madame of the Manor. Good grief.

We called a friend and she had a recommendation and a few texts later Josh arranged for this guy to come pick up the boys at 5:15 yesterday morning. Josh got up with them, met him, shook hands and said, “every day at this time?” And we were set. It’s a small price to pay for an extra hour of sleep every morning. Hallelujah.

My alarm to get up for CrossFit just went off. I’m out!

1st day

First full week of school down, many, many more to go. In spite of casting off all the anchors holding me back (said totally tongue in cheek), I had very little free time this week. Trying to get all the Kid’s Church stuff finalized for our Fall semester, sorting through materials, and then dealing with the Revenge of the Cat. 
I won’t tell the entire story, because it’s a bit traumatic, but I will say that for an entire day I thought I was responsible for a kitten’s death, but it turned out to be an entirely different (and large) stray cat that chose to climb up inside the wheel well of my car and die. And remember I’ve been complaining how hot it is? Not a good mix. So that day was completely unproductive as I cried on the couch trying to escape the smell of death in my yard — discovered when I thought I had an oil leak, but quickly realized . . . . that’s not oil! 

Josh was my hero and with his tools and headlamp, unscrewed the wheel-well panel and disposed of the mess once he got home from work. The only good part about it was seeing how big and heavy the body was and realizing that it wasn’t the mama or any of the babies — hopefully it was an old stray who had lived a long life and decided my car was the perfect final resting place. Mama Cat probably sent him there. Anyway, I’ve had enough animal stress to hold me over for a long time. 
On to more pleasant topics: Camille’s first day! All hennaed up for the special occasion. 

The women at the salon were so happy to see her after our long break this summer. 

Scrambling to finish breakfast and finish dressing in the final minutes before the bus comes.

And off she goes! Hello Kitty shoes, My Little Pony socks, her German dirndl, her Middle Eastern henna, and her many accessories. An international mishmash.

She rode the bus with her brothers (she sat next to Caleb) and then I headed to school to meet her for Morning Meeting. 

Each morning they line up by class, have announcements, do the pledge, tell a few jokes and dance. Today was the Chicken Dance. 

She’s in class with a friend, Talia. 

The new kindergarteners are taking this very seriously

Aren’t they the cutest?!?

Ready to go off with their teacher. No tears for anyone. 

She rode the bus home by herself the very first day (because all of her brothers had sports after school). She loved it and told me she got to sit with a first grader who loved her henna. 

She is already commissioning a replacement dress for when she outgrows this one. 

At the end of the week — 4 days of work and 1 day of fun! (Her teacher’s motto. Thursdays are “fun days.”) Aside from being extra tired on Thurs morning (after late night Bible Study group Wed night), the transition has been a success. 

cat update

My life has devolved into throwing dates at a cat. (Ripe ones are falling in piles on the ground and they are the right size and shape — and within reach). Do not feel bad for the cat. I repeat, do not feel bad for the cat. She doesn’t get hit by the dates anyway — my aim isn’t that good. 
Sing it with me: “The cat came back, the very next day . . ..” She can’t even be bothered to open her eyes to look at me. She has been climbing over our wall to get a little “me time” away from her kittens. When they were inside the yard with her, she would do the same thing by perching out of their reach, causing them to meowel at her in chorus, driving my animals crazy inside. 
I am a super softie, but when our cat is peeing on my kids at night (perched himself on top of Calvin and peed at 5am multiple times) and when the dog lifted his leg and peed on the end of the boys’ bed and found a new daily pooping spot on Carter’s handmade carpet, my love for animals is severely tested. So if hucking a few dates saves me from staggering around at 5 am, stripping beds and scrubbing cat pee, then that’s what I’ll do. 
They have hundreds of stray cat friends up and down the street and unlimited open dumpsters as a 24 hour buffet. My animal rescue plan is maxed out at 2. It seems that I am currently winning this war. Josh drove into the carport the other night and the cat was inside, but eyeballed him and then slowly strutted her way out to the street through the open garage door like, “yeah, yeah, I’m going . . . “
Since I’m already talking about poop, when I saw this new product at the grocery store it made me a little afraid for the blooming that might take place inside people’s bowels. That doesn’t sound fun. 

Girlie started her second week of school today. Since Sunday is PE day, this is what she picked out to wear. 

Fully accessorized with a headband, ponytail, and bracelets. Her teacher reminds us of Auntie Ginger and it makes me happy that she gets to spend the day with someone who is warm, loving, and appreciates her unique sense of style. I will say that I WAS WRONG because I thought Josh was being ridiculous when he agreed to buy her this set of My Little Pony socks that she wanted when I found some very nice plain ones for school instead. But she wears them every day and calls each pair by name and has gotten every single penny’s worth out of them. A win for Dad.