I have nothing pressing to do and so I thought I would update this site once again. LOL..Parrish had French lessons today and was picked up by his friend's mom. Thank you Mary Lou for doing something that may seem trivial but is greatly appreciated especially on a day when mounting laundry is waiting and dust bunnies are dancing around the corners quite happy with the party they are having. LOL.. Parrish was gone by 8am and went straight to Grand Rapids for a few hours of fun with Lucas at Craig's Cruisers. He won't be back until 4pm for his swimming class. Aspen and I have been lounging here at home since he left, indulging ourselves.  I've done a load here and there, laundry and dishes both. Dusted a little, went outside to watch Aspen play and have even updated my Facebook site and managed to chat with a few friends from high school. Although come to think of it that was done first before all the other tasks at hand were addressed. LOL What can I say, I told my husband I badly needed a second wife around here. Which in return he said he badly needed a 2nd housekeeper since the first one he paid gladly took the money and went shopping. LOL...Oh Forrest, how did I get so lucky...lol.  I still need to go out and go to the bank. Maybe stop by at Starbucks and have cinnamon melts at Mc Donald's. As you can see I am milking this day.  It's all about making the most out of it. Til' next time.

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.  ~Tenneva Jordan

No one ever told me it was going to be this fun. If they did I would have done it sooner than I did.  I love being a mom.  I especially love being Parrish's and Aspen's mom.  Oh what a hoot these 2 have been so far.  8 years and some months now.  Never a day that goes by no matter how hard and challenging it was, that I don't feel blessed.   Never a day that goes by that I am not reminded of it.  Parrish out of the blue today told me that he is a very lucky boy and when I asked him why,  I was told that it is because I love him.  I don't even know how I am going to let go of them eventually.  Maybe then,  hopefully anyways,  I will realize that it is part of it.  " If you truly love someone you have to let them go", I was told once.  Aspen will start full day kindergarten in 2 weeks. I don't know how it would be at home without them for 7 hrs. Quiet I suppose.  Pretty ironic actually,  since I wish for this at times.  Now I don't even want it.  Quiet can be quiet somewhere else.   They are growing up so fast, slowly slipping away.  A lot of firsts this year.  Parrish had his first sleep over at a friends house.  The first time Aspen rode his bike without training wheels was this summer.  Sleeping in their own beds. The first time I broke down and hired a babysitter.  Lots of firsts...and I would have gladly stepped into the seconds knowing that it can give me comfort from the familiarity of it all and not having to go through the emotional upheaval of doing it the first time.  It's me lamenting here.  This is my time of night or morning.  I usually reflect as I am not afforded this opportunity during the day. There's always dirty hands, scraped knees,  an argument to mediate,  a kiss to give,  a hug to receive,  a swing to push, a whisper to decipher,  a friend to invite,  mouths to feed, a bruised ego to heal.  Always...always, there is love to give.

P.S. I apologize.  I do not know how to add friends on my list that doesn't have a bravenet account.  Let me know how and I will add you.  Thanks.

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. "

Oh what a day it was!  I had just gotten back about an hour ago after a long day with Parrish and his classmates at the Dillon's Farm in Hastings.  I didn't know what to expect when I signed up as a chaperone for this end of the year field trip.  I had 4 kids in the car with me, that I expected. It was a long drive(1 hr), that I also expected. But what I didn't expect was how beautiful and amazing it was going to be. The long drive up to the farm house, the well maintained barn and corral,  75  acres of pristine land ripe for our exploring, the pond, and last but not the least the horses.  The kids were divided into three groups and they all did separate activities in a choreographed manner. There was the long nature walk along the trail, exploring bugs and plants. We even get to see a dead possum with its young ones in its pouch.   The kids scrutinized every little frog, snake, tadpole, weeds, bubbles and whatnot in the pond .  Lunch was had in the barn, bales of hay acting as seats and tables. The kids had a kite making activity and got to fly their kites out on the lawn afterwards.  It was very idyllic.  The setting perfectly matched the kids wayward attitude towards  exploring.  At the end of the trip, this spring day, not only did we smell like dirt but we also smelled like horses, hay, and sun.  The scents of spring, the smell that you have after a long day of having fun.

And tomorrow will be another day.  Aspen's end of the year field trip to the Curious Kids Museum in St. Joseph, MI .

Funny...sad...and true.

What transpired during our drive to school this morning, out of the blue.

Aspen: Parrish, how  do you get a wife?

Parrish: You have to date them Aspen.

Aspen: Oh, so you have to pay? I don't think I want a wife then.

Parrish: What are you going to do then?

Aspen (seriously speaking) I am going to live with you Parrish.... BUT YOU HAVE TO WEAR THE SKIRT! I am not wearing the SKIRT!

It was so funny it made the day go easier. LOL Now here's the funny but sad part. It happened late this afternoon:

Parrish: .Where's Pappy, Aspen?

Aspen: He's still at work. A kid has addendisitis. (He meant appendicitis but can't pronounce it right. LOL) He has to take him to surgery and take it out.

Parrish: Mama, can I have my appendix taken out too so I can see Pappy tonight?

Me: No Muskrat, dinner will be better.

So off we went to the hospital to have dinner with Pappy.

"Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted."

Busy as a bee.... It's been hectic on our end here the past few weeks. Parrish had his 1st communion and Science fair 2 wks. ago. I decided not to have the party at my house but instead had it at our favorite place, Saffron. We had family and guests that came from Detroit and Dallas. Having them in the house for 1 week alone was already a party. But we had a blast and that is all that matters. I'm still trying to recover from that, Spring concert last week and now have to deal with end of the school year activities. Classes end on June 5th (with Latin America as the year end festival theme) but both kids have field trips after field trips and I had volunteered as a driver/chaperone. Off to the Curious Kids Museum and a picnic along Lake Michigan in St. Joseph for Aspen and the Dillon's horse farm for Parrish. It will be very exciting indeed. I am now trying to coordinate their Summer schedule especially since we will be spending time in Dallas, Texas for a month in July. Both have been taking tennis lessons since they were 3 and are not willing to give it up. So I have enrolled them for tennis in Texas, too. Their private swim lessons are year round so no chances of dropping that. Piano lessons I was going to drop but their teacher decided to teach this Summer so that will be retained, too. Plus, Mad Science camps and Binder Park Zoo camps. Busy we will be. Their time will be occupied. At least it will keep them from getting in trouble. I will attempt to load pics from their swim class and tennis match. I still have to figure out how to load it from my Iphone into this site. Oh well, I never claimed I was adept at this. LOL. In the meantime I have lost my husband in the shuffle. LOL...He's been so busy that we finally decided to have dinner at the hospital cafeteria tonight. I got tired of being interrupted during dinner time and for him to leave for the hospital every night the past few weeks that we decided to have a picnic there, basket and all. The kids thought it was cool. Hospital food was not an option so I had ordered out, put it in a basket and off we went. I take what I can get with my husband's time. Life is too short,  I say pick your battles.

P.S. Sorry, I attempted to post my pics in my album but pics are appearing too big and I don't know how to resize them. LOL...pics are in the album.

He is our thinker. Always looking ahead, planning, very deliberate, surgical in fact.  Anything that comes his way is dealt with very precisely. Nothing was too hard, everything was easy.  It's as if he's reflecting the time and circumstances when he was conceived.  I was 28 yrs old then.  He was a honeymoon baby. Within that 9 months, I turned 28, got married and got pregnant. My husband just got done with his surgical residency in Detroit the same month we got married and got pregnant. We moved to a new town, he had a new job, new friends, bought our first home, took his surgery boards and passed it, all within that year.  Yet everything seemed fluid. All the chips fell where they were supposed to and the icing on the cake that year was Parrish Karsten. We call him Parc for short. At 9 months he started walking. At 14 months he started talking. At 2 1/2 he started reading. By 4 he was reading chapter books, was in his 2nd year of preschool and was in command of that classroom according to his teacher,  even though there were older kids because it was a mixed classroom, a typical Montessori setup.  When he was 6 and in 1st grade he was more interested in splitting hydrogen and oxygen in water instead of doing what typical 1st graders do.  But with wisdom comes a degree of being infallible. And so there is a constant struggle to maintain a balance. He is always taught to achieve, set high standards for himself but in the process to have fun, to be a kid.  He is always reminded that it is okay to be wrong and that often times you learn more that way.  I notice we are very different compared to our counterparts. I hear kids in school all the time telling me they have to be a doctor when they grow up because their parents are doctors or have to be lawyers because dad is one. I on the other hand is happy when the rare occasion comes up when Parc is interested in something else other than being a doctor and scientist.  I feel that I am very singular in this, at least among this group of parents. All I want is for him to find satisfaction in what he does regardless of what he ends up pursuing. As long as he is happy that's all that matters.  But for now, I am stuck with the unending questions about the eyes. He is doing research on sight and to cap off the research that he did, his teacher ordered a sheep's eye for him to dissect all by himself.  I was a Neuro-Trauma ICU nurse and Open Heart nurse in Detroit but even I was not prepared when he handed me the container with the sheep's eye he dissected,  nonchalantly pointing out to me the retina, cornea, lens and the aqueous chamber missing the aqueous humor.  It's always a struggle not to barf at times. LOL. I feel like he is growing up too fast and just as with Aspen, I won't have him any other way either.

I woke up this morning with that familiar warm sensation on my cheek. Fleeting, but familiar. As I struggled to open my eyes, I heard him whisper on my ear, "mama, I am hungry".  Auguste Spencer, my Aspen.  That's our ritual every morning when they don't have school. He always beat me to the clock, waking up on the dot at 6:30. I on the other hand is still on yesterday's timetable.  Caught between trying to recoup and seizing the day that's in front of me.  It's a perpetual struggle and only my kids can get me out of it. I reluctantly gave up the foot pocket I've created and the warmth of the cocoon that enveloped me and slowly made my way to the kitchen.   I got jolted by the image I saw in front of me. There he was wide awake with a huge grin on his face loudly declaring: " I'll have a bowl of granola cereal, honey wheat hawaiian bread, 2 slices of fresh mango and water for breakfast please. And oh, scrambled egg if you are not tired." How in the world can someone be that alive at that time is beyond me. But that's him. Very much like his dad. Forrest as usual left at 5:30am to do rounds at the hospital. Parrish is very much like me, still in bed and will be there until around noon. He probably would sleep through an earthquake if there ever was one. LOL. As I sat there and watched him eat he reminded me about a funny thing that happened last night. He wanted to say he's sorry for his behavior. What happened was he was insisting that it was a special day and so by default he should be allowed to drink Sprite. Mind you it was already 7pm and that Sprite was there since their bday in March. I don't usually have pop at home unless there is a party. So I reminded him that the pop is old and that it is too late in the night for it.  We went back and forth on this,  him pleading his case and I vigorously defended mine. After a while he kept quiet and I thought that was the end of it.  I should have known better. It is Aspen after all. As I was tucking him in bed he requested that I stay when he says his prayer.  Very unusual for someone who is very private. He usually wants me to leave by the time he does his "alone" time with God.  And so there I was listening to him pour out to God saying: "Dear God, please tell my mama to let me drink Sprite". I on the other hand thought it was my cue to start praying when he paused as if waiting for me to say my piece said,  Dear God, please let Aspen know that Sprite is bad for him.  I waited for his answer to that and without skipping a beat he said: "Dear God, please disregard my mama's last prayer".  I burst out laughing. I laughed so hard that my husband came up to check if everything was okay.  Aspen,  in some ways he is so much like his dad and a lot of ways like me.  He just turned five but acts like he is thirty.  But I won't have him any other way.

It's been 2 weeks since the spring solstice and everyone here in the Robart household have been looking forward to the warm weather.  Parrish and Aspen have been playing outside daily, sun or no sun. Often complaining why the neighborhood kids are not out. Personally, I think it is still a little bit chilly especially with the blowing wind.  They felt cheated when we went to Orlando last month when it seemed like the cold weather followed us there.  Oh well, you take what you get. Although I heard we will be seeing some of that white stuff next week. Bummer. Somehow, I don't think flip flops, spring coats sleds and mittens  match. Anyhow, life goes on.  It's been hectic and will continue to be hectic in the next few weeks. We had the boys bowling/arcade party last month after we came back from our Orlando trip. We are on spring break right now and are staying put. Forrest is on call so we can't go anywhere outside of Kalamazoo. The boys will be in Detroit next week for Rory's bday party. Forrest and I will be by ourselves for a couple of days until we have to leave for Detroit next weekend. Him and I had a relaxing 3 day weekend there last week and we decided to stay at the Book Cadillac Hotel downtown, just the two of us. That was fun. No kids, no work and I had him all to myself. We are currently busy with Parrish's science project for the science fair and Parrish's upcoming 1st communion in May. The suit is already bought. Still looking for shoes and dress shirt to go with it.  A lot easier when you don't have a girl. Although I can still be fickle when it comes to their fashion. LOL. I just am trying to decide whether to have a party or just book lunch for all the visitors at the Radisson Hotel after. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Life would be boring without them though.