A happy home

Grandma Moses Watercolor – Elementary Art Lesson

At the beginning of each art lesson, I ask the students to venture a guess as to where the artist was from, based on the sound of their name.  Consequently, they’re learning that many of the “masters” originated in France (and Italy, and the Netherlands).  They are also discovering that the French drop the sounds of consonants at the end of their words, that Italian might be the easiest foreign language to pronounce, and that artists from the United States are multi-cultural (as one would expect in a pluralistic culture such as ours).

When I posited the question during this lesson on Grandma Moses, I got my favorite response of all time:  “I’m thinking she might have been from Egypt.”  After all, Moses was from Egypt.  Classic.  But no, I had to inform this worthy guesser that Grandma Moses was, in fact, from the United States.  Laughed out loud.

Sixth-graders are a great bunch to teach.  Most of them have dubbed themselves as either artists or non-artists by this point.  So the trick is to reel them in through art history, and/or use a medium with which they have little to no experience so they know they can chalk up any perceived failures to it being their first time.  In this lesson, we did both.

First, we read this book.  I’m a big fan of Mike Venezia’s series.  I especially enjoyed that he mentioned that Grandma Moses’ depictions of the simple life resulted from the lack of availability of modern technology.  Like movies, TV, and CD players.  No mention of handheld devices.  I checked the publication date: 2003.  Ancient history by now.

Second, I breezed through this powerpoint, giving a additional background on Grandma Moses, introducing a few art principles (horizon line, foreground, middle ground, and background), and explaining the project step-by-step.  Here it is, in a nutshell:

It worked out well.  In the assignment, kids were expected to include objects one might have found in a typical Grandma Moses scene.  Trees, fields, people, buildings, animals, a path or stream.  It kept them engaged and there was little to no mess, as a bonus.

Materials used: Watercolor pencils, watercolor paper (9X12)

Difficulty: Easy.  Sixth-graders were encouraged to take their time.  Most used up the full hour and a half they were given.  Instruction took about 30 minutes.

Survival guide to a major home remodel.

About this time last year, Tim and I began considering adding onto our house.  “It’s now or never,” I said, realizing that our growing kids would make far better use of an expanded home before they start trickling off to college in a few short years.

We’d tossed around the idea for years, but had laid it aside due to our strong aversion to debt.  But, having paid off our rental property last year, we felt a bit more secure in our finances.  And, we wanted our kids to enjoy time with their friends at our house without us breathing down their necks (or relegating ourselves to the upstairs bedrooms).

Sure, we toyed with the idea of purchasing a larger home close by, but, wouldn’t you know it, at the time there was only one home available for sale in our neighborhood (of over 1000 homes).  Plus, we LOVE our view of the foothills, our neighbors (and the fact that we don’t have any backyard ones), and our proximity to schools, church and work.  We decided to shop around for general contractors and draw up plans.

Fast forward to April, we’d picked a contractor, designed a 700 square foot two-story addition and were prepared to break ground in May.  With the goal of being done by mid-August.  At the latest.

Well, it’s now late September and we have been walking around on sub-floors for almost two months.  We lack a working kitchen sink.  We need siding and a roof.  And maybe a mental health evaluation.

While I am in the throes of the remodel, I figured I’d mention a few ways in which we’ve coped and things I would have done differently, had I known what I was getting into:

1. Get used to the fact that your home is no longer yours.  It is a construction zone.

Strange people will walk in and out of your house whenever they darn well please.  They will ask you important questions as you are walking out the door, late for an appointment.  They will use your brooms, your footstools, your toilet (when your contractor forgets to order the porta-potty), your fridge.  They may act polite when you are around, but they don’t really care about your living space.  Repeat to yourself: this is no longer my home.

This is our backyard while we were gone on a trip. Blatant disregard for the condition of our lawn.

2. Take the projected completion date and bump it out at least double the time.

We were told it would take two months.  It’s been four (and we’re still waiting).  Then take your projected budget and add 25%.  There are many working parts in a home remodel and any no-shows, sick days or mistakes screw up the schedule more than you can imagine.  I cannot tell you how many times we have had to reschedule our hardwood installation because we did not want contractors walking around on our newly-installed (not to mention, expensive) hardwood floors.

 

3. Prepare for an emotional roller-coaster.

Over a week ago, the fabricator came to install our new countertops.  I was over the moon excited.  We soon discovered that we had not adequately communicated that we wanted to replace our wooden supports with metal ones.  He could order them and finish installation the following Wednesday.  My excitement was again squashed when I realized that our contractor had not scheduled our plumber to install the new faucet.  And still hasn’t.  Nine days and counting.  Stuff like this happens over and over again.

 

4. Pretend you are living in a different country.  Or century.

For seven weeks, we’ve been walking around on sub-floors.  It almost seems pointless to sweep, but we do.  Jack and I have done a few loads of dishes in the bathroom sink.  We started using the bathtub this morning, for the sake of efficiency.  When I find myself complaining, I remind myself that there are places in the world where dirt floors and no running water are a daily reality.  And that makes me grateful and able to push through the inconvenience of life without simple pleasures we often take for granted.  Like home-cooked meals.

Which leads me to another point.

5. Work some money into your budget for eating out/healthy freezer meals.

I cannot overemphasize how unmotivated I am to whip up a healthy meal for my family without a working dishwasher and kitchen sink.  If it had been two days, we would have easily managed.  But now that we’re going on ten days, we’re feeling the effects of cold cereal for breakfast and frozen meals for dinner.  We’ve gone from 3-5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day to 1 or 2.  It’s not particularly good for the psyche to fuel your body with junk.  So do yourself a favor, and plan on splurging on eating out (healthy).

 

6. You may be tempted to leave the house (or maybe even skip town) until the horrors die down.  Don’t.

We had a three-week vacation planned during some of the louder/messier stages of construction.  We thought we were dodging a bullet and hoped to come home to a transformation.  To the contrary, we arrived home to find that we still had no walls or insulation.  We had no electricity upstairs.  Our windows had been installed only days before (meaning that our entire house had been exposed to the elements for two weeks between demolition of our exterior walls/windows and installation of new ones.  We half expected to find critters nesting in all corners of the house.  Or better yet, squatters in our attic.

Tim remarked that it’s a good thing we don’t have anything of real value because it could easily have been stolen while we were gone.  Add to that the fact that our builders had made themselves at home while we were gone, using our toilets, leaving trash on the counters, and stashing food in my recently emptied and cleaned fridge(which we had cleaned out in hopes that the hardwood would be installed while we were gone).  Instead of our back doors being installed – there was a piece of plywood nailed up (with a gaping hole almost a foot wide in one corner).  It really was that bad.  As I said before, the contractors don’t really care about your house.  If you do (and I assume you do), you would be wise to spend as much time hovering as you possibly can.

This is what our downstairs looked like when we arrived home from our trip. I about started crying.

This was the “inside” of our house. I had our neighbor take pictures daily so we could stay abreast of the changes (and have a record). I didn’t bother to show them to Tim. Would’ve ruined the trip for him.

7. Designate space in your home as a “safe haven”.

We lost use of half of our downstairs living space and half of our upstairs living space.  Our garage has become a storage area for furniture building materials and tools.  Our master bathroom contains everything we emptied from the upstairs bedrooms.

The toddler’s been sleeping in our master closet.

We haven’t had a door to our bedroom for four months.  But, our girls do.  And two of our downstairs rooms are relatively unaffected, so we moved our couches and TV into those rooms so we can still have some semblance of a gathering space.  And our girls can find peace and quiet in their bedrooms.  So there’s that.  You are going to feel cramped, but you can mitigate that by making the remaining spaces in your home livable.

 

8. Procrastination will become your friend.

Every time my kids ask me when something is going to happen, I simply reply, “When the addition is done.”  End of story.  “Mom, when can we buy new school clothes?” (When we have space to store them…after the addition.) “When can I have friends over?” (When our home isn’t a collection of hazards…after the addition.) “When will we go for a family bike ride?” (When the builders get their stuff out of our garage so we can access our bikes again…after the addition.)  “When are you going to make dinner again?”  (When we don’t have to wash dishes in the bathtub…after the addition.)

The answer will always be the same.  Because I did a lousy job anticipating all the ways in which this remodel would put our family out, as well as how much time it would take, I can justify answering them (in a most exasperated tone) in this manner.  It would be funny, if it weren’t so frustrating.

 

9. The dust.

Oh, the dust.  It will be everywhere.  You’ll get so tired of cleaning just to have it look equally dirty the next day (sometimes the next hour) that you might throw in the towel.  I pretty much have.  I’m tired of spinning my wheels.  So, with the exception of my food prep areas, and, for the most part, my “safe havens”, I have relegated myself to living in filth.

10. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way.

I might be sick of my sub-floors, but I can appreciate that the gaping hole left in my backyard fence allows me plenty of wildlife viewing.  I might be getting weary of parking in my driveway, but at least I have one.  I might not love washing dishes in my bathtub, but I’m grateful that Jack happily joins me for the occasion.  Living in an industrialized country spoils us rotten.  Deprivation can be the antidote to our sense of entitlement.  And gratitude is what develops if we allow it.

It’s easy to see that home remodels are not for the faint of heart.  If you’re prone to dust allergies, are finicky about cleanliness, have an aversion to noise, dislike interruptions, have perfectionistic tendencies, lack patience, or are super stingy when it comes to budgets, just don’t.  I thought I was strong.  But it turns out I’m not.  Ask me in a year how I feel about it all.

Back to school.

Epic road trip and family reunion out of the way and we could gear up for another school year.  We have them at all three schools this year-meaning multiple start/end times and, therefore, lots of carpooling.

Anna started high school this year and is killing it.  She auditioned for the vocal jazz group (and made it), loves seminary and is taking French 1 online in her spare time. Anna makes school look easy and is honing her piano and voice skills through lessons.  She’s teaching piano in our home to earn a bit of cash and has her driving permit(ahhhh!).

Lily is in 8th grade, enjoys the audition choir at junior high, likes to retake math exams, and is enjoying dance as a pastime.  We’ve had to put the reins on her internet use, as she was wasting her life away on Instagram.  Her confidence is getting her through those rough junior high days.

Rachel runs us ragged with her crazy sports schedule.  She plays school basketball and league softball one after the other.  She also takes math at the junior high in the early morning and then finishes her day at the elementary.  Somehow she fits piano lessons in.

Eve is a mover and a shaker and wants every minute to be filled with fun and friends.  She also loves dance, plays basketball, and lives to make homemade slime.  She is Jack’s best friend or his worst enemy.  Braces are in her future but we sure love to make her smile.

Even Jack started school this year!  Joy School.  He’s a bit on the young side, but it’s a very casual mother’s co-op preschool on one day of the week.  It is SO good for him.  And I make the most of the 2 1/2 hours I get to myself when I’m not teaching.

Somehow I got roped into chairing art night at the school this year.  I’ll teach art and sixth and fourth grade, as well.  Jack is demanding and I swear I never get anything done with him around, but I adore him and love enjoying my fifth and final toddler/preschooler.  It is my very favorite age.

We’re grateful to Tim who supports us financially so I can chauffeur all the littles to their activities and manage the home front.  What would we do without him?

This sort of reads like a Christmas letter.  Time to get a family picture, then copy and paste.  Check.

I want to stay home with my kids, but I don’t want my education to be wasted.

These were my daughter’s exact words to me yesterday.  We had been discussing our recent beef with our HOA board and she mentioned (as she has dozens of times before) that I should really become a lawyer.  “You can argue anything, mom.  You really need to go to law school.”

Flattered, but unconvinced, I responded that I am perfectly happy being mother to my children and see no reason to pursue another career at the present.

She paused, then opined that despite not wanting her kids to spend their days with anyone other than her, she did not want her college degree to go unused.

My response, “What makes you think that staying home with your children is a waste of an education?”

To be fair, I understand that most degrees train someone for a specific field of work.  I realize that not pursuing that particular career makes the cost associated with one’s education yield a low financial return.

However, here are a few reasons I disagree with the assumption that my college degree has been “wasted” because I’ve spent all but two years since earning that degree raising my children.

  1.  If/when I decide to get a paying job, my earning potential exceeds that of a non-degree holder.  I think of it as an insurance policy.
  2. Being an educated woman means I know how to learn.  I’m not scared to tackle new projects or experiences.  I just do my homework on how it’s done and jump in with both feet.  In fact, pretty much everything I’ve learned about being a good wife, mother, homemaker, etc. is predicated on that fundamental ability and confidence to learn new things.  Now I could teach my own class on a variety of subjects, despite not having a formal education in any of them.
  3. It sounds silly, but, with the exception of eighth grade algebra and on, I can actually help my kids with their homework.  I still read enough that I haven’t lost all memory of things academic. Consequently, my children still consider me an authority on all sorts of topics.  It’s kinda awesome.
  4. This one may seem shallow and it certainly isn’t the reason I attended college.  But, having done so gave me exposure to the kind of dating pool full of eligible bachelors whose earning potential would allow me to stay home forever, if I want to.  I’m not saying we’re swimming in dough, but we can still live comfortably without my having to offer financial support.  It’s safe to say that Tim and I found each other because we were both pursuing an education.  He wanted an educated spouse and so did I.  Quite possibly for entirely different reasons.  😉

So, dear daughter, my college degree is certainly not wasted.  It’s not even lying dormant.  It very much facilitates my success as a stay-at-home parent, despite the lack of a paycheck.

So unless you think money is the only way to make a college education worthwhile, feel free to pursue that degree.  And then feel free to stay at home with your kids, if that’s what you want.  No guilt.

Jackson family reunion 2018.

After arriving home to a home that had a piece of plywood instead of a back door (and so, SO many other things that make me tired just thinking about them) I was in no shape to pull things together for a family reunion.  At our house.

That’s right.  All 23 members of my extended family were coming to Boise for our bi-annual Jackson family reunion.

I had invited them all up here in anticipation of our addition being complete, but when it was not progressing as expected, we booked a few hotel rooms up the street to hedge our bets.  But I still thought we would at least have FLOORS by the time we pulled this thing off!

Lucky for us, Boise is a fantastic outdoor destination (which was kind of the point of hosting the reunion here during the summer) so we made plans to be out of the house as much as possible.

And, by golly, it worked!

Thankfully, we had prepped the meals ahead of time for easy cooking and our kitchen was in working order so that was no problem.  We floated the Boise River, went to the Shakespeare Festival, had summer fun at a local ski resort, went swimming at our neighborhood pool, played games, and spent a day at the “beach”.

There was fun for all ages and it was delightful to spend time together.  Memories to last a lifetime.

Here are the pictures to prove it.

One activity that was especially fun for me to plan (and for everyone else to carry out) was our version of Relative Race.  We all divided into teams (by family, generally-speaking) and raced around town to find various sites of interest.  At each site, the teams were expected to perform a “challenge” related to our family history/culture.

For instance, at one station entitled “Guess Who?”, one player expected to ask questions (with yes or no answers) to determine which of our ancestors the other players had selected.  Like the board game “Guess Who?”.

At another station, they were given a four-generation fan chart (blank) and had to match names of our family members to the correct place on the chart.

For the third one, we obtained baby pictures of all the people in our family and they had to determine who was who.

And at the last station, each child(under 18) was asked why their parents gave them their name and/or what their name means.  (I, of course, contacted parents ahead of time for this one).

All in all, our family got to see a bit more of Boise, discover a bit more about our ancestors and learn more about ourselves and each other in the process.  Fun all around!

Chillicothe and the drive home.

Our last “church history” experience was a visit to the Hopewell Mound Visitor’s Center in Chillicothe, Ohio.  Tim has spent a good deal of time studying Book of Mormon geography and is partial to the North American view of it.  It seems logical to me, though I haven’t done the research he has.

What is notable about the mounds is that they represent a relatively advanced native American culture that existed from approximately 100 B.C. to 500 A.D. with similarities to what we read about the people in the Book of Mormon.  Though many questions surround the Hopewell culture, it’s interesting to speculate about their origins, their religion and their lifestyle.  I’m glad we could satisfy Tim’s itching to find out if this mound group was the city “Bountiful” mentioned in the Book of Mormon.  (It wasn’t.  According to Tim.)

After toying with the idea of driving straight through the night to get home the following night, we opted to drive as far as we could, find a hotel for the night, wake up and do so the next day.  We landed in Iowa City the first night, Kimball, NE the second night and made it home the third.  We even lost our iPad charger the second day and had to survive the third (over 11 hours in the car) without movies or games.  Quite a feat to manage a two-year-old in a car seat all day without being able to plug him in.  Somehow we managed.

As a side note, we realized as we were driving that we would pass through Tim’s birthplace in Urbana, Illinois.  Since he hadn’t returned since those early days (his parents were attending grad school), we quickly called them to get directions to their apartment.  They couldn’t remember, so they guided us to the married student housing and we stumbled to navigate the area, finally landing at the apartment where they lived (we might have mistakenly taken pictures in front of other apartments prior to that).

We arrived home to our house a complete wreck (we’re remodeling).  We had hoped our contractors would have much of it done before we arrived home.  As it turned out, only the framing, electrical, plumbing and HVAC was complete.  That meant no insulation, no walls, no hardwood or carpet, no doors…it was disappointing at best.  In fact, we later found out they had just put the windows on a few days earlier, leaving us to conclude that our house had been exposed to the elements (and critters, and who knows what else) for about two weeks.  Yikes.

It was insane – the house barely livable, and we tried to get a hotel for the night but by then it was almost 10 p.m. so there was little available.  We conked out in the two bedrooms that remained for our use and hunkered down the next day to clean up the disaster.  Not the best welcome home we’ve had, but somehow we survived.  Epic family road trip a success!

Pennsylvania in two days.

Tuesday began with another early morning of packing up and shipping out for our next destination: Philadelphia.  We’d booked a tour of Independence Hall (another genius move on my part, as they were all gone by 10 a.m. that day).  My memory of Philadelphia was sort of this run-down ghetto-looking city, which it was from the interstate.  Unlike my first experience there, we were actually going into the city this time, which proved perfectly lovely.

The downtown historic district was stunning, with it’s old world charm and rich history.  We jumped in line to see the Liberty Bell, since we had 45 minutes to spare before our tour.  We were lucky enough to be held up by an enormous group of Chinese students who simply HAD to get individual pictures in front of the old relic.  Consequently, we didn’t manage to get a similar prized shot, so we took one from the side, at which point one of the Chinese kids walked in front of our family.  Then another did it.  And another, but I was wise enough to anticipate him so I took the picture after he’d passed through the frame.  Jack wasn’t having it either.

Annoyed as all get out by now, we moved on to Independence Hall.  The tour was brief but reasonably informative.  The biggest impression came at the realization of the miracle that took place within those walls.  That those men, with starkly different backgrounds could construct a document that would inspire a nation, indeed the world, is a feat not to be underestimated.  Their foresight and commitment to freedom paved the way for a rugged individualism that has changed the world and afforded millions with a life beyond imagination.

Even though Jack was resistant to staying still throughout the tour so I missed the bulk of it, it was a thrill to be where our founders stood in the critical shaping of our nation.

Grandpa joined us for a token Philly Cheesesteak sandwich at Geno’s and drove us to take a peek at the Philadelphia Temple (our fifth and last church temple of the trip).  Exhausted from the weeks previous, we skipped the full Philly experience, satisfied with a lesser one, and drove to our hotel to take it easy.

We got up early (this became quite a pattern) to drive to Hershey for a chocolaty experience.  Before leaving, I asked the girls which of the attractions they wanted to experience while there.  To which they unanimously agreed to the “Make Your Own Chocolate Bar” tour.  Upon our arrival, we were informed that the machine had broken down and that they were offering either a full refund or an “alternate” experience where you pretend to create your own chocolate bar but then get your choice of three non-custom giant chocolate bars and a rain check to come back another time.  I laughed out loud.  “We’re from Idaho,” I said, “and it’s unlikely we will ever make it back out here.”

Still, we did the tour, got more chocolate than we could ever hope for, and have a reason to go back to Pennsylvania someday.

The girls had a great time because… chocolate, and off we were to Gettysburg.

Gettysburg was a singular experience.  Tim had purchased an excellent audio tour of the sites and it proved perfect for our crew.  We covered the Battle of Gettysburg in about 2 1/2 hours, including a bit of venturing out of our car.  The girls agreed that it made the history come alive to hear the play by play and visualize the events as they occurred in the very place we stood.

After departing Gettysburg, we drove another 6 hours to Chillicothe, OH, where we stayed the night.  That leg of driving encompassed some of the most picturesque country I’ve ever beheld.  Sadly, it was slightly obscured by the torrential downpours that dotted our drive.  Pennsylvania and West Virginia are simply breathtaking.

 

New York 2018.

Day One

We took our chances leaving Boston for New York at 8 a.m.  While trying to catch a 2 p.m. matinee on Broadway.  We pulled into the Bronx to catch a train to midtown just in the nick of time and made it to our seats with 15 minutes to spare.  Lucky.  Especially for those unfamiliar with NYC and its labyrinth of subway lines.

 

Wicked was everything and more than we had hoped.  I found myself sighing after each and every number at the knowledge that we were getting closer and closer to the end of the show.  Elphaba was amazing.  Glinda?  Captivating.  It was the perfect girls day in the city.

We emerged to see that the Starlight Diner, where our cousins would be eating for dinner was just a block away from the theatre.  So we killed a bit of time strolling to Times Square.  And back.  And then stumbled upon the fam already marking their spot in line outside the restaurant.

It took us an hour, but it was an experience, to say the least.  Anna and I split a meal because, whoa.  Kids meals cost $16 a plate.  I was shell-shocked by the price of an average burger in the Big Apple and braced myself to eat hot dogs for our few days in New York.

We bid goodbye to our cousins (for the last time this trip), and took the train back to our New Jersey hotel.  It was lovely to arrive home to an unpacked car, rested toddler, and clean sheets.

Day Two

We attended church in Staten Island and ran into a friend of my parents from when I was a baby.  That’s 40 years ago, folks.  What a trip.  Chatted a bit, took a picture, changed into something a bit more tourist-friendly and took off for a bit of Sabbath-friendly sight seeing.  We drove by the house my parents lived in when I was born, then we took the Staten Island Ferry (which my dad commuted on every single day when I was little) into Manhattan.

We parted with Grandma and Grandpa so they could wait for hours to see the Statue of Liberty.  We took a stroll up to the 9/11 Memorial.  It felt like hallowed ground.  Super sobering and a good opportunity to instruct our kids.  I feel like my kids’ generation lacks perspective on the horrors of war and the blessings of living in a free country.  I sometimes fall short in my gratitude.  9/11 is the only event in my lifetime that truly hits home and reminds me not to take the ease of my life for granted.  Visiting the 9/11 memorial brought back many of the horrors of that day.  I recommitted myself to showing thanks for those who sacrifice so that we can live in peace.

Then we hopped on the subway to see the Manhattan Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Lo, and behold, we met two couples just outside the temple, one of which was from Boise!  What are the odds?  They kindly took our family picture and we moved on the Central Park.  We covered a decent amount of ground, considering we had a toddler with us, who was skipping his nap.  The Bethesda Fountain, the Loeb Boathouse, the Great Lawn, one of the playgrounds.  We emerged on the other side of the park just in time for the Metropolitan Museum of Art to close its doors for the day.  Just in time for us to snag a picture.

After a total meltdown from our toddler, we safely made it back on a train to downtown, where we caught the ferry back to Staten Island, grabbed a cheap dinner at Denny’s and headed back to the hotel.

Day Three

So much to see, so little time.  Our day began with another ferry ride into the city where we split into two groups.  Tim went with the four girls to take the crown tour of the Statue of Liberty while Jack and I rode the train, as per his request.  We managed to fit in a visit to Grand Central Station, a walk on the High Line, and a hot dog and popsicle in Battery Park while we were at it.

Note: we booked our crown tour six months in advance.  As it turned out, all the crown tour tickets were gone for the day when we showed up at 10:30 a.m.  Wise is the man who plans ahead.  The kids enjoyed the crown tour, but the recommendation not to bring kids under 8 was sound.  Apparently, there was a kid on their tour who burst into tears at the spiral staircase (claustrophobia, perhaps?).  You also can’t take babes in arms (or in carriers) so there’s that.

At this point we were all starving so we booked it up to Chinatown for a late lunch.  Side note: Chinatown was swimming with stores whose fronts were adorned with t-shirts sporting the F-bomb.  Like ten times on each shirt.  At least ten shirts in every store.  Definitely not g-rated in those parts.  We couldn’t duck into the restaurant fast enough, having seen more swear words in less than ten minutes than my kids encounter at the junior high in a week.  Yowsers.

Food was great – bellies were full and we emerged, heads down, to make a beeline to Brooklyn so we could walk the bridge into Manhattan.  We were smart to go that direction – the views were stunning and we didn’t have to keep turning around to see them.  Jack fell asleep somewhere along the way and enjoyed a nap on the subway to South Station and across the harbor to Staten Island on the ferry.  Yay.  No meltdown that day.

And that’s a wrap for our whirlwind trip to NYC with five kids.  There’s way too much in that city to cram into a few days but I think we hit some of the highlights.  Kid-friendly ones.  And we managed to not spend an arm and a leg doing it.  At some point, I’ll write up a post of tips for traveling to New York with kids.  For now, that’s it.

From the Bronx to Broadway.

Today we drove from Boston (my favorite U.S. city) to the city of all cities.  My heart was racing the whole time-not because Tim was driving like a New Yorker, but because we had a matinee to catch.

Wicked on Broadway.

It was the only thing I wanted to do while in New York. It would be the most expensive thing we would do in New York.

I might have shed buckets of tears if we were to miss this singular experience.

I had Tim drop us off at a subway station in the Bronx so he could skirt the city and drive the Suburban to our hotel in Jersey.  (Someone had to take one for the team and sit it out with Jack.)

We were the only white folks on the train.  Talk about instant culture shock for these Idahoans.  I was pleased to find that my girls seemed unphased by this role reversal.

On our ride into the city, we encountered much of what is probably common to subway-riding New Yorkers: people selling overpriced candy in order to pay rent, a lady with outstretched hand, begging for money.  Another disabled woman asked for help with her medical bills.

All this in a matter of minutes.

Admittedly, it was sobering.

Here we were, five females from Boise, Idaho, in New York City.  Headed to a play for which we had paid $150 per ticket.  In New York City.  (Did I mention that?)

And we were riding a train with dozens, even hundreds of people who would never know that experience.

It’s been said that “ Comparison is the thief of joy.”  While that can most certainly be true, I also believe that it can work the opposite direction.

I could lament the fact that, in contrast to many people with whom I associate, this was my first time seeing a play on Broadway.  I could whine about how I can only afford to attend a single production while here.

Heck, I could complain about any number of things-from the fact that our seats were 11 rows back versus front and center to the inconvenience of sitting behind someone taller than I.

But that would be silly, wouldn’t it?

My takeaway from our train ride was that comparison can only rob us of joy when we lack perspective.  If we constantly look in the direction of those who have more and do more than we, we cannot help but feel short-changed.

Alternatively, when we experience a world of the have-nots, we suddenly realize what a small percentage of the world enjoys the blessings we do.  Instead of feeling entitled, our joy is enhanced by the gratitude we feel.

I know mine was.  Dang, I’m glad we took the subway in today.

Boston 2018

We traveled to Boston on a Monday morning.  I called ahead of time to check into our hotel a bit early but was given no such guarantee.  So we instead took a joy ride into downtown Boston to show the kids my early college stomping grounds.

Driving downtown was a beast (by that point, it was rush hour).  I knew Boston as a pedestrian and had trouble navigating it in a car.  Everything came up SO quickly!  I’d point out one landmark to my kids just as I’d realize we’d missed our turn and had to backtrack.  But the whole outing was kind a spur-of-the-moment idea since we couldn’t check into our hotel so we went with it.  We drove by Mike’s Pastry and waved because there was no parking.  Luckily Grandma and Grandpa found parking and snagged us a couple of treats to enjoy later that night.  Our driving tour of Boston was a great little teaser and validated my decision to use public transportation the remainder of our time there.

After checking into our hotel, we researched a reasonably-priced Indian restaurant a few minutes away in Lexington.  Much to our delight, it turned out to be right on the Battle Green – where the Revolutionary War began.  To top it off, there were kids playing drums and fifes in true colonial style right on the Green.  Such a step back in time and a splendid welcome to Massachusetts, in my opinion.  The food was pretty awesome, too.

Day two we woke up early to grab some T passes and park at the end of the line to take the subway into the city.  It took FOREVER, but it gave us the flexibility of getting around wherever we wanted whenever we wanted.  And since our afternoon ended in a torrential downpour, that was a blessing, to say the least.

Day three took us to the Public Garden for a ride on the swan boat.  Because you can’t go to Boston with kids and not relive a Make Way for Ducklings moment.  Then on to a Boston Harbor Cruise to the U.S.S. Constitution.  Old Ironsides was a hit with the littles.  Lots of places to hide from the parents.  We made it back in time to hit up the New England Aquarium for an hour before heading back to the hotel for a swim and visit with cousins.

Day four we stayed out of the city and ventured instead to Salem.  Our first stop was the House of Seven Gables – the basis of a Nathaniel Hawthorne book.  The kids declared it “the coolest house we toured on our trip” – which is saying A LOT, because we toured a ton of houses.  Pretty sure it was the secret passageway that sealed the deal.  We hopped over to the Salem Witch Museum – which was weird and we’ll leave it at that.

Our final day in Boston took us back downtown to tackle the Freedom Trail.  We fit it all in in less than 2 1/2 hours, including a stop at Walgreens for cold medicine and a Dunkin Donuts run.  Because who can survive a day in Boston without at least one trip to Dunkin Donuts?  Not us, apparently.  Then we met up for lunch in Harvard Square with my dear roommate from BU.  She was brave enough to join us on a tour of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s house near Harvard.  It is significant for a number of reasons, the least of which that it was directly across the street from the chapel where I attended church during my tenure in Boston.  It also was the headquarters for George Washington as he commandeered the war in Boston.  The kids were reasonably well-behaved and then I sent them all back to the hotel so Allison and I could spend a bit of time catching up over ice cream.

We ate dinner at Tim’s brother’s house and then went out for more ice cream at Kimball Farm.  Three treats in one day is totally legit on vacation.  Just so you know.

And that concludes our trip to Boston.  We packed it in.  Now on to New York!