Going with the roomy pant trend nowadays. Some trends come back around again and again. In fact, I remember well my mother wearing pants like these with loose, flowy tops when I was about four or five years old. She would also wear her hair in long braids… I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, now does it!
Happy Wednesday!
It’s funny, looking at these pictures makes it seem as though we spent any reasonable amount of time indoors this past weekend, when the truth is we are sun-kissed and exhausted from spending nearly every waking moment outside. It was a beautiful weekend to ring in May. 
On Saturday the boys went to circus class at the City Museum. They had a dress rehearsal for their upcoming show and I can honestly say that we’ve seen them progress dramatically this time around. It’s clicking into place just what they are doing, and they’ve picked up on fine-tuning details they didn’t notice before. Milo studied one of his role models Benjamin (an amazing, humble young man who’s only been at it for 3 years) in the minuscule movements that make a good clown a good clown, and we noticed him putting new effort into his act. I love that they are learning all aspects of circus, not just tumbling and trapeze and juggling, etc. The clowning stuff is really special, especially for someone who tends to take himself too seriously. We’ve noticed that Milo has been more able to laugh at himself when he does something embarrassing, to recover quickly, or to make a joke of a situation that would have otherwise sent him running away crying. He’s maturing, in a way, because of this class. 
Oliver has also really improved; for him, the coordination and physicality of circus has helped him with his confidence and dexterity. He is more daring and likely to take risks at the playground after hanging upside down from a trapeze; just this weekend we watched as he encouraged a little girl to do the monkey bars and “bird’s nest” from the rings at the playground. His confidence has grown in such good ways, without turning him cocky.
And Emil, of course, wants desperately to join. Soon enough, little buddy. Frankly, all the exposure every Saturday is probably just what he needs at this age. It’s fun to watch all four of my guys out there in the ring at the same time!
The rest of the weekend we stayed together as a family. We spent hours and hours at the playground, one of us running off to grab snacks and refills on ice water. We slack-lined, played, built with magna tiles in the shade, rested, played some more, repeated, and on and on til we nearly dropped. Sunday we did much of the same. House work can wait, sometimes. In fact, house work can wait most of the time. Lately it just hasn’t seemed important to me. I want to be with these guys and enjoy them. So if you drop by unannounced… consider this your warning.
All fun, all the time. That may just be our May motto.
The Deep Dark Woods: “East St. Louis”
Rocky Votolato: “White Daisy Passing”
Sera Cahoone: “Deer Creek Canyon”
Scary zombie-screen-faces
This week, our boys are participating in screen-free week, which is exactly what it sounds like; there will be no videos, no computer games, no screens for the whole week. We’re starting today with much excitement! Actually, we’ve whittled our boys’ screen time down to twice a week anyway (they usually get an hour of computer games every Wednesday and a movie on either Saturday or Sunday), so I don’t anticipate this to be very challenging for us, but that doesn’t mean it is not a big deal. It’s really important, and I’d love for you to join us!
Supporting screen-free week means focusing on daily life and being more present during the moments we are together as a family. I will probably struggle most with this, as I do all my writing and blogging on the computer, but I have set up posts in advance for every day this week in anticipation. I’m planning to do all the errands and cleaning and exercising I usually do while the boys are in school, but I’ve added a few to-do’s to my list to keep me from reaching for the computer, including gardening, mulching, and preparing for my trip to Ohio with Oliver next weekend (hooray!). The boys are especially looking forward to choosing a new book at their school’s book fair this week.
And while I realize that being completely screen-free for the adults is not easy or possible in some cases, it is totally do-able for your kids. If you decide not to go screen-free for the week, at least consider cutting back! Would you consider doing this? What do you see as potential drawbacks? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
On a whim, my friend Ingrid called me Wednesday morning to see if I wanted to see Elvis Perkins play at Old Rock House… you’d better believe I yelled, “YES!” and then I tripped on the uneven bottom step leading down to our sidewalk and twisted my ankle. Nursed that sucker all day Thursday. But it was worth it.
While the opening act was not all that impressive, we really enjoyed Elvis Perkins (who was joined by the gorgeous and talented Danielle Aykroyd — Dan Aykroyd’s daughter — on bass, and yes, I have may have a lady crush). The music was layered with complexity but also clean and true. Such a good show. Thank you, darling Ingrid, for getting me out of the house for an unexpected evening of fun and talent! You are a true gem, friend!
Another of my favorites, about a guy lucky enough to have a pig heart transplant (it’s a really charming song, trust me):
Happy May 1st (Yay May, one of my very favorite months!), and have a beautiful weekend!