Brisingamen End Of Year Note, 2022 (August)

At a Tyler Arboretum members’ weekend, I learned that the family had free access to the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science.  Justine said there had been a tornado on the grounds and then Covid happened; so the museum had been shut down a while.  At the beginning of August, the family decided we would take advantage of the freebie and go!  Wow!  It was a great museum!  It is a small museum, with only three or so main sections, and indoor educational – outdoor-themed play area and a very hands-on, kids’ mini section.  (Did that make sense?)    We have been there three times now and we have focused on different areas each time and have not run out of things to do. 

During our first visit, as a family, there were a lot of boys’ and girls’ groups at the museum.  You know – they all wear the same color shirt and then a very loud adult, who walks at the back of the group, very slowly, in the same color shirt, with their hands partly outstretched and their heads slightly cocked up – that very loud adult stands there and bellows over the noise of the group as the kids educate themselves by slamming drawers in and out and tapping on animal habitats.  (Children were never meant to socialize with each other.  Groups of children are the worst).  Anyway, these 70 kids and 2.5 adults were watching the lizard demonstration.  We were patiently waiting our turn to see the lizard eat amidst the odd demands being shouted out: “If you can hear me, clap 5 times!  If you can hear me jump on a foot!  It’s humming time!”  I don’t know – whatever technique is used to break the concentration of children to tell them to get their lunchboxes.  Maybe it’s fair.  Kids do it to parents all the time.  *Parent working on something intently.*  *Child in the other room.*  “Hey mom!  Is this dangerous?!”  I digress.  These two girls were looking at me and murmuring and whispering something and pointing and whispering some more.  Now, I’m used to this, I’m just not used to it from girls like these two – a little awkward, not too popular, set of girls.  I can tell.  These girls and I have the same not too popular vibe.  I smiled and looked to find where Luke and Tawbs were.  Then the girls approached me.  “Umm, uh, I like your bag.”  I was using my Iditarod purse that Luke got me for Yule.  It says “Alaska.  Where men are men and women win the Iditarod.”  This was coined after two of my childhood idols, Libby Riddles and Susan Butcher, dominated the Iditarod during the mid to late 80’s.  I smiled and thanked them, said “My husband bought it for me.  Love the Iditarod and mushing – actually got to go out with some dogs a couple of times when I was younger.  How about you?”  From that, the girls took it as I had run the Iditarod – the big one – the 1,100+ mile race in Alaska – Anchorage to Nome.  They were in shock – blown away – could not believe what was happening – they were talking to an Iditarod racer!!  (Their faces said it all.)  “The Iditarod?!  What year?  How’d you do?  Your dogs…”  “No, no, no,” I corrected, “I went out training with some dogs.”  They told me they watched a show on TV that follows a musher and they both wanted to move to Alaska and become mushers.  I hope they do it – I hope they make it.  We couldn’t talk too much more as the “Can you hear me?” adults caught them talking to someone and they ushered them over to the lizard tank.  It’s all good.  The kids probably shouldn’t have been talking to a stranger.  But it was fun to see the love of the Iditarod and mushing so alive in a young generation.  Susan Butcher and her sister were never held back or told “That’s good for being a girl/woman.”  That’s what’s amazing about mushing.  It’s not about the musher.  It’s about the dogs.  Men and women compete equally because it’s about the dogs.  It’s exciting to be around girls that want to be a part of the sport.

We turned in Catawba-Lynn’s Journey Across Delco sheets to the Prospect Park Library.  Catawba-Lynn made it to all 27 participating libraries this past summer (Marcus Hook was closed for remodels but we went there as well to get a picture of her at the library).  It was an excellent program this year, same as last.  Oceans of Possibilities was the theme this year. 

Hooray!  Someone screwed up our mortgage and after it was sold or whatever, we received an almost $5,000 refund check.  I was happy to have a $5,000 check but it made me feel stupid that we paid close to $5,000 for something we weren’t supposed to.

Catawba-Lynn and I snuck in going to Newlin Grist Mill with Justine and her boys.  It’s a park or greenspace that has trails and a fun place to play in the creek.  Tawbs hadn’t been in water since swim classes.  She loves water, but she doesn’t swim yet.  I noticed no improvement or new skills since her classes in Hartford, WI right before Covid.  Sessrumnir splashed around and had a fun time swimming.  And towards the end of the day, the kids found a snake in the water!  It was a good day, with or without the snake.

Catawba-Lynn and I went to a Marple Library program called Dinosaur Dig Ancient Undersea Reptile Show.  It was presented by two older paleontologists that had knowledge in the field and great stage presences.  During one part of the show, they asked for a volunteer team – a parent and a child together.  Before they could finish their request, my hand shot up so we could volunteer.  It was a good show, and we like dinosaurs, so why not.  The gentleman had a dinosaur fossil in a box and 5 clues, given to Tawbs and I, 1 at a time, to see if we could guess it.  We did it!  We guessed it in 4 clues – but I cannot remember what the fossil was.  Oh well – but we did it there!

That Friday started Justine and I’s hiking weekend.  I wanted to hike all 6 of Tyler Arboretum’s hikes in 1 weekend.  Since I have always included Friday afternoon as the weekend – Friday was included with this goal.  Friday, we did the Red and Orange hike, totaling 6.14 miles.  Saturday was the White and Blue trails, totaling 11.49 miles.  And Sunday was Pink and Yellow trails with an extra loop in the deer exclusion area, at 6.19 miles.  We left the hiking trail areas, totally pumped from hiking and feeling great.  We were instantly accosted with crying children, strollers, well dressed women, sun hats…  Where the hell had we been?  We were still in Delaware County, still in the suburbs, (I consider it the city), but we were so wrapped up in hiking and the woods and no one was at risk of getting their face poked with an accidentally flung stick, (we did this hiking weekend kid-less).  It was so stress free that we forgot where we were.  The screaming children brought it back quick though.  A victory drink was in order as we soaked up our hiking victory!

It was a Tuesday off for Lucas and I had asked him what he wanted to do.  He didn’t really know.  I figured he would have picked one of the places on my boast list, but he had been talking about Scranton, so I decided we would go there.  But first, we drove Catawba-Lynn around Marple, cashing in the reading log prizes she earned for fries, and ice cream and pizza and such.  She loved it!  We were supposed to go to Scranton for a weekend, but with money tight, one day out to see the place would have to suffice.  Yes, we were going to Scranton just because of the show The Office.  We saw the clock that was featured in The Office’s intro song.  Scranton far exceeded my expectations – like at NayAug Park.  A huge park with trails and what seemed like what used to be a zoo, a pool, outdoor concert area, and there were different areas with interesting things to look at or do.  For instance, an artistic tree house thing on a cliff to make for an overlook to the rocks and river below.  It was very interesting.  But other parts of Scranton were below expectations.  It looked like it was a tired, old, city and in many places, on the verge of a troubling transformation.  We went to The Office Dunder Mifflin Gift Shop inside Coopers Seafood.  Tawbs was excited to see cutouts and merchandise of the characters in the show.  We walked around Steamtown National Historic Site, but we didn’t go in the train museum.  We went to McDade Park, which was beautiful.  It had a nice big playground, almost in a pit, with benches and picnic tables raised slightly higher than the playground, so parents could watch their children from above very easily.  Or, I could sit with Sessrumnir and technically not have my dog on the playground while my daughter was supervised on the playground equipment.  And of course, we were to Ollie’s in Scranton.  Otherwise, it was back home we drove.  Interesting to say we went to Scranton and saw The Office area.

Catawba-Lynn officially started First Grade, 8/17/22.  We didn’t start Kindergarten last year until September, but since kindergarten isn’t mandatory, there wasn’t as much pressure to make the mandatory dates and hit all of the bulleted topics – like I don’t think we talked too much about civics and government in Kindergarten, or officially did fire safety – but those topics are mandatory for First Grade and on.  But we started early so we can get our 180 days in.  I’m proud of her.  Many days it is a struggle to get her classwork in, but she has strong reading skills, and her reading comprehension skills are parallel to her reading.  And she is understanding simple math – but doesn’t like it too much.  She’s going to advance me in science soon – due to her constant pull to create and build.  I am excited to get through the first evaluation (2023) so I know what to expect in the future.

We three enjoyed going to the Simone Foundation Auto Museum.  It is in Philadelphia – out of the way though, closer to us then Center City – with free parking!  Again, we used a library pass, so it was free for us.  The museum centered around racing.  Very interesting.  The absolute cherry on top was the museum had four battery operated, riding kids cars that kids could use while inside the museum!  I will be going back here – Tawbs loved it.  The museum also has a Kissel car there.  Kissel was made in Hartford, WI.  We toured Kissel’s previous house at an event in Hartford.  We heard stories of how he ran his business, and it was interesting, to put it mildly.

Lucas was looking over our calendar one night and was totally perplexed about what Catawba-Lynn and I were doing the next day.  “Mud Run?” he questioned.  “Um, honestly, I have no clue what we are doing.  Justine wanted to do this, and she’s told me like three times what it is – but stress – I cannot remember – so we are going to go do this thing with Justine and I don’t know what it is.  This is what I’ve gotten out of our conversations about it.” I replied.  I had no idea what we were doing, but I thought she said mud run, so I packed appropriately.  And I knew there would be a splash pad at the end.  I’m pretty sure this is where Justine got the nickname “Bad Ideas” from Lucas.  “So, you’re hanging out with Bad Ideas?  Is that Bad Ideas messaging you?”  Luke’s funny.

It ended up being a hike that Justine found called Mud Run/Muddy Run.  Wow.  It was awesome.  We ate our lunch when we got there and then hiked.  The views!  We ate lunch way up on a bluff which looked hundreds of feet down at a lake.  The hike crisscrossed through a creek, with massive boulders and trees throughout.  Stunning greens from the trees mixed with the black and grey coloration of the rocks.  Wow.  We hiked around a turn and there was a gorgeous young woman sitting by herself at the water.  I told Tawbs she was a mermaid – and Tawbs may have believed me.  I felt bad, I think she was meditating in some fashion, and here us 5 come, loudly lumbering and shouting through the riverbed.  I apologized and she didn’t care – laughing at our self-observation of our groups’ stark contrast.  I did tell her I told my daughter she was a mermaid and she gushed and said she wished.

The splash pad was a hit after the hike.  It was a very good, free, splash pad!  We had snacks at the picnic table and the kids alternated between the splash pad and the playground.  Deer were seen in the foreground – waiting for us to all leave the area so they could play.  It was a great day!

Sessrumnir is the best, however he eats everything.  He scared me as one day he was straining to pass waste and couldn’t.  He couldn’t defecate and he hurt.  He came in the house and laid and screamed and contorted.  He then was able to poop in ribbons, but compulsively was trying to squat every couple of minutes.  So I gave him canned pumpkin, corn and black beans.  I hoped the high bulk and fiber would push whatever it was he swallowed out of his body without wrapping around anything or tearing anything.  It must have worked because he ended up being okay, be he scared me quite a bit.

I participated in a study.  It was for technology of some sort.  Facial recognition in some way.  It was interesting and I got $200 in gift cards to do it.  I did it in a morning on the weekend so Luke and Tawbs had a fun, chill morning together.  I came back home and my neighbor was outside.  I told her about the study.  I like money.  It reminded her that she had a big bag of super nice clothes for me – which I excitedly accepted.  If I look put together, it’s probably because I am wearing those clothes.

At the end of August, Justine suggested that we go to Wintertheur (it’s like a garden) for the last kid’s educational activity morning.  Bonus – entry was only $5 that day.  We did all of the educational crafting activities.  The kids learned how wallpaper is restored, how to write with a quill, how stamps are made and used and a couple of other things.  We walked around and looked at the gardens, which was good.  The children’s area was great.  There was a stone and wood open lodge, a creek (snake in there too) and a huge nest with huge fake eggs to play with, among other things.

Catawba-Lynn and I are following The Magic Tree House books in class.  Every 3 weeks or so, we read the next fiction book in the series.  We then find it’s nonfiction companion, and other nonfiction books on the subject.  We go to area museums and such to learn about the topic in person.  Dinosaurs Before Dawn is the first book in the series, so we went to the Delaware Museum of Science and Nature to focus heavily on the “Dinosaur Section.”  We met Justine and her boys there.  The kids worked together to do the dichotomous key, explore the fossils there, and do all of the reading and activities in the dinosaur area.  We took a walk outside, in the back, and I was able to see some of the tornado damage that was done to the area.  Justine said it had used to be heavily wooded.  Many of the trees were standing dead or had fallen.  But the museum was working with what they had and was using the fallen trees as new path markers, pieces for kids to play on, and wood chippings.  We ended the day with walking the Earth timeline in the front of the museum.  The length of the walk represented the time frame in which that era happened.