Walking Down the Street

Well, we found out last night that it wasn't the thermostat that was causing our Jeep Cherokee to overheat; it was the head gasket (I think?). Now, even though I religiously listen to Car Talk, I really don't know much about automobiles. Apparently, a broken head gasket is a Really Big Deal, and means pretty much the same thing as a broken engine. This, in turn, means that we will be vehicle-less for at least a week while the mechanics rebuild the top half of our Cherokee's engine. Hooray. So this morning, instead of doing a good hour or two of homeschooling and then zipping down the hill to pay rent and pick up some groceries before lunch, my son and I put on our walking shoes and embarked on a fun-, sweat- and errand-laden peregrination through our neighborhood.

Living on a small island is much akin to living in a small town: we were constantly stopping to socialize as we made our way through Cruz Bay. From the woman who owns the bakery (breakfast was our first priority this morning) to the two lovely librarians (our library books were of course due today) to the man who sells us our internet service (the internet was inexplicably down this morning) to the hardware store owners (suddenly Parker is fascinated by hooks, especially when attached to a string, so we stopped to get him one, which I tied to a piece of thread) to the Mail Center employees to the woman at the smoothie stand to the grocery clerk to the assorted friends and acquaintances we kept running into (thankfully not literally), my son had ample opportunity to practice his social skills today. To continue with the theme, we ate dinner at my husband's restaurant earlier this evening after returning my husband's partner's car, which I'd been able to borrow this afternoon to shop for enough food and water to hopefully last us until our Cherokee is fixed. (Have I mentioned that we live uphill from downtown? Carrying sacks of groceries, jugs of water and a 42-pound kid up the insanely steep hill atop which sits our island home is high on my list of activities to avoid.) Parker sat at the bar, ate his fish and fries and chatted with his favorite lady friend (blonde and gorgeous, naturally), several of the customers, the bartender and wait staff. My son and I will be fairly isolated--stuck without wheels at home--for a while starting tomorrow, so I figured a day of running around, out and about, would be good, for both of us.

Postscript: This repair on our Cherokee is going to cost us an arm and a leg. While we have our wallet figuratively open, I thought, "Hey, why not spend another arm or so on a printer?" Reading about all the homeschool materials I'll be needing to prepare in the coming months, I'd been realizing that a home printer would be incredibly handy to have. So I ordered one today. Of course, my husband-the-techie made me get a much fancier one than I'd at first selected ("But with this one we'll be able to print from our phones!"), but that's OK. I'll have fun watching him nearly levitate with glee the first time he presses "Print" on his iPhone.

The library books we borrowed today.

Parker's hook (which he's been merrily using to raise and lower a countless number of household items).

Try, Try, Try

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES:

• Hardware Busy Board
• Bead Stringing
• Transferring
• Sweeping

It'll be just a short post today. You see, I usually use the quiet that blissfully occurs while my son is napping to think, to write. My skin has been attacked of late by the horrendous heat rash, though, and it had become so bothersome by last night that I wretchedly lay awake, unable to sleep due to extreme levels of discomfort. My sleep-deprived state caught up with me this afternoon when I lay down to put Parker to sleep; within seconds I was in snoozeville. So I'm writing now, post-dinner. Unfortunately, a tired body combined with a full tummy do not facilitate composition. It's nearly 9 PM and, pathetically, my bed is beckoning again.

School went OK this morning, despite my rash-induced discomfort and enervating exhaustion. I'm thinking of creating an OSHA-inspired sign that reads, "Number of Days Without an 'I Can't Do It!' Utterance." Not really. Well, maybe really. Now that we're pretty much past the settling in period--Parker and I both rapidly becoming accustomed to our new school and our new schedule--I'd really like to focus on my son's habit of throwing up his hands at a task and moaning, "I can't do it!" It's crazy because he sometimes says those words right on the heels of having completed the task in question upwards of five times. It's like his capacity to be persistent experiences ebbs and flows. I will need to practice praising Parker's efforts rather than his achievements in order to help him gain the ability to work through his feelings of frustration; this will deter him from attaching an inordinate amount of importance to "success." If, at the end of this homeschool endeavor, my son has learned perseverance above all else, I will feel supremely satisfied.

TGIF

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES

• Washing Dishes
• Playgroup
• Sweeping

OK, so the Caribbean is gorgeous, yes, and I am very thankful that I can take my child to the beach whenever I want to, and the iguanas and donkeys are awesome, too, but does it have to get so freakin' hot? I was dripping with sweat before 7 AM this morning, and I have to say that a hot and sticky mommy is not always a patient, kind and affectionate mommy. I've no idea how mothers in Iraq make it through the summer; can you imagine chasing and cleaning up after your small child in temperatures topping 130°? I cannot.

On Friday mornings, we have playgroup. I thought about trying to fit in a school session either before or after, and maybe I will further on in this adventure, but Fridays for now will be set aside for socializing,

which is unequivocally valuable for both preschoolers and their mothers. So the school shelves stayed in the closet today, though my son and I did practice a couple practical life activities outside of "school." Parker assisted me in the kitchen this morning, getting out his breakfast dish and the items I'd need to make his meal. After eating, he washed his own dishes. He did a fine job--and loved that he got to help me and play with soapy water at the same time! Later, Parker swept up his graham cracker crumbs (as well as an embarrassing amount of "Mommy hair" that constantly litters the floor no matter how often I vacuum). He's had his own little broom and dustpan since he was a toddler, but today I actually took the time to demonstrate "proper technique" to him. He used precise and careful movements and painstakingly made sure he got every speck off the floor, walking over to the trash can to empty his dustpan every time it had more than two crumbs in it. I painstakingly made sure I remained patient while I watched him turn what's for me a 30-second task into a 10-minute exercise.

Have I told you it's hot? I'm off to sew more button holes...