Jenyfer Matthews

Thank god it’s Monday.

I realize that’s not the prevailing sentiment regarding Mondays but I for one love Mondays. The children are back in school and relative peace and quiet descends on the house once more. I am released from the sportstravaganza that is my weekend and left to my own devices for eight hours a day. Bliss.

This weekend was action packed. Thursday evening we had dinner out with some friends at the club where the children take their tennis lessons. Convenient since the children are always ravenous after their lessons and I didn’t have to rush home to cook.

We had friends over for lunch on Friday and convivial chat followed closely by tennis lessons.

Saturday morning started out with a double header of little league baseball, first game at 8am. I woke early to prepare the team snacks for game two (a hit) We finished up about noon, went home for lunch and a little downtime before heading off to – you guessed it, tennis lessons. Are you sensing a theme here?

I can’t complain about the tennis lessons – I knew the schedule when I signed up for them. And the children are really enjoying them. They never complain about going, not even when I have to interrupt their playtime with friends to leave. And it sure beats having them sit around watching TV.

The biggest benefit though is the fact that they are so tired by the end of the day they are in bed and asleep by 8am. Not a bad tradeoff for all the running around.

You might recall I mentioned that my daughter’s Tamagotchi got married and had a baby a few weekends ago. Well, this weekend, the adult character went back to its home planet, leaving the baby behind for my daughter to take care of. What exactly is this supposed to teach my child? Though this is apparently a normal progression in the world of Tamagotchis, in any other circumstance, I think this would just be called irresponsible.

You don’t have to tell me I’m over-thinking this…

My son is quite a storyteller lately. Last night we were reading selections out of a collection of Aesop’s Fables. We’d just finished “The Lion and the Mouse” – you know, the one where the mouse saves the lion from a net by chewing through the ropes. So we’re sitting there talking about it and he says, “that happened to me once.”

“Really?” I ask.

“Yes, at Grandpa’s house.”

He goes on to tell me all about the hunters who had set a trap in the woods for a lion and how he himself had chewed through the ropes to set the lion free. As he went along, more and more people were added to the scene. Apparently the hunters who had set the trap were eaten by the lion – he was pretty ticked off by the whole thing – and the lion was pretty ferocious to just about everyone else as well, aside from my son and me of course.

“The lion didn’t eat you because he liked your watch.”

“My watch?”

“Yes. And your shirt. When he looked at you, he got big heart eyes.” And he put his hands up to his eyes like glasses.

It took me a minute to realize he was referring to cartoons and how they animate one character falling in love with another. I laughed until I had tears in my eyes.

Best story I’ve heard in a long time.

Velcro is a mixed blessing. It has its places, don’t get me wrong. I’m just not sure it belongs on children’s shoes.

Oh sure, it makes it so much easier for little hands to do put on their own shoes quickly, with little effort, and with no assistance. It does help little children indulge their independent streak, I’ll give it that. They don’t need much help to master smash and tear and parents aren’t pulling out their hair while they wait for their little darlings to get their shoes on their feet.

But there is a downside. Little children also never take the time to master the tricker fastenings like buckles. Or shoe laces.

I can vaguely recall learning to tie my shoes as part of my kindergarten curriculum. Not my kids. They are learning the alphabet and beginning to read and write but no one bothers with shoe tying anymore.

And so it falls back to me.

My daughter’s feet have been growing at an alarming rate recently. Up til now I’ve been able to put off the inevitable and just continue to buy her shoes with velcro or elastic closures. I tried tennis shoes with a zipper once but the zipper kept working its way down when she ran. We had to go and buy her some new tennis shoes this weekend and the fact is, the bigger the shoes get, the fewer that rely on velcro closures.

It’s time for her to learn to tie her shoelaces.

I’m trying to figure out how to approach this. See, my daughter has a rather low frustration point. If she doesn’t instantly succeed, she’d rather just give up than keep trying. She loves her new shoes but she’s happy to leave it to me or her teacher to tie her shoes for her.

I’ve tried the bunny ear method and it’s not all that successful. Anyone have any experience with this? Helpful hints? Short cuts to success? I’m all ears!

As anxious as I was for the holidays to be over and the children to go back to school, there is one thing I didn’t miss while they were off: packing school lunches.

The school they attend does not have a cafeteria so I have to send lunches. In theory, I don’t mind so much since I’m a bit of a granola mom and packing their lunch myself means I get to stick my oar in and give them what I want them to have. (And I might as well take advantage of that as long as I can!) In reality it’s not always easy to think up things to pack five days a week.

They get bored with the same old sandwiches day in and day out. Who can blame them? But my choices are limited when there are no facilities for warming up food in their classroom. I have to pack things that taste good either cold or room temperature, travel well and can be consumed in fifteen minutes or less (calling it a “lunch hour” is a misleading to say the least). Add to that the complication that my children have very different preferences.

My daughter is a protein hound. She’s on a peanut butter kick at present (not yet outlawed in their school, thank goodness!), but I know one day, just as I’m getting in a groove, the tide will turn and she’ll suddenly start rejecting what she loved the day before. Her other love is junk food – too bad for her I rarely indulge it.

My son is a fruit bat – the sweeter the better. He also likes pb&j or cheese sandwiches, but I could pack him a fruit salad every day and he’d be happy. Unfortunately, the time I tried that, the bananas disintegrated and the kiwi turned to mush. Pots of yogurt are hit and miss.

I’m not at my most creative in the mornings and having to pack for two different tastes isn’t always easy. Now multiply my pain by two: they have a “snack” period and a “lunch” period. My children are good eaters so they end up bringing quite a lot of food with them each day. Their lunch bags are heavier than their school bags by far.

I’ve been trying to come up with some easy solutions to keep things fresh and exciting and so far the only things that I’ve come up with are packing the same old cheese sandwiches on buns instead of sandwich bread (surprisingly simple but thrilling for them). Even if I wanted to fall back on more convenience packaged food, outside of chips, snack cakes, and juice boxes that sort of food doesn’t really exist here in Cairo. And until Luncheables starts marketing a vegetarian option, it wouldn’t do me much good anyway. I am thinking of ordering a pizza once in a while, just so I can send the cold slices in their lunch the next day.

They’d love pasta salad or hummus or veggies and dip but who has time to go to such lengths in the flurry of the morning rush? As much as I resist the notion, I know what’s coming next : I’ll have to start preparing their lunches the night before.

Like thinking up what to cook for dinner every night wasn’t challenge enough!

I’m not sure what it is about mother-daughter relationships that can be so difficult at times. Maybe it’s all the hormones flying around. Maybe it’s understanding each other a little too well. Maybe it’s that my daughter is a nut.

First of all, she’s seven going on thirty. You know the kid at school who teaches all the other kids the rude gestures and words? The one that tells anyone who will listen all she knows about sex (which isn’t much) That’s my girl!

And believe it or not, she didn’t get it from me. Well, not all of it.

That stuff I can roll my eyes and live with. The thing about my daughter that drives me batty is her gender identity crisis. She does her level best to act and dress like a boy at all times.

Outside of school (god bless uniforms!) she lives in nylon soccer shorts or sweats and loose tshirts. She won’t wear anything that’s the least bit fitted, nothing with a v-neck, nothing with glitter or sparkles or anything in any shade of pink or purple. I can’t tell you how many perfectly good clothes I’ve ended up giving away because she flat out rejects them. I recently put a moratorium on anyone buying her new clothes because it’s a waste of time and money.

I can’t reason with her. I’ve tried pointing out that I’m not a girly-girly either. I prefer jeans to skirts and red to pink myself. And yet, no one has ever mistaken me for a boy. She’s even complimented me on my clothes from time to time but does she follow my lead? Nope.

She has lovely chestnut hair that she refuses to let me style. She barely tolerates my brushing it. I took her to the barber and cut it in a short boy style once, in a fit of frustration. I loved it because I could finally see her lovely cheeks and beautiful smile. But everyone thought she was a boy so now we’re growing it out again. The irony is that many boys we know are also growing their hair out so she blends right in.

You know, I could live with her dressing like a boy if that was the extent of it. The ironic thing is, whether she realizes it or not, she’s excruciatingly girly in other ways. She agonizes over what to wear days in advance of an event. She rejects everything in her closet and weeps because she has “nothing” to wear. She loves shopping for shoes.

Hmmm…maybe there is hope for her yet…

Pardon me while I go shopping…

One more birthday to go.

I won’t be doing much writing this week. My children are home from school on vacation so there is much noise and demands for food going on. Also, I need to get organized for my son’s birthday party on Thursday.

I wanted to do something a little different than last year – where I hauled all my supplies out to the large communal garden in the back yard and let everyone run amok. True, it has the advantage of keeping the fuss out of my house, but the downside is that I feel obligated to invite and feed everyone in the building (children and adults) and carry all of my supplies down four flights of stairs. (Did I say that already? It’s a LOT of stairs!) I did that for my son’s party last fall and daughter’s party in the summer and frankly, I’d like to move away from that sort of party-extravaganza. Keep things small and simple.

Instead, I told my son we’d invite over six of his best buddies for pizza, popcorn and a video. They could wear pajamas, we’ll turn out the lights and have a Scooby-Doo marathon. It will satisfy his lust to constantly have all his friends over to play as well as keep things small and manageable. Right?

I’m beginning to get scared though. If everyone comes – and it looks like they will – we are talking about having seven 4 & 5 year old boys in my house at one time. My living room will be ground zero for all of the noise and mess of the party. I felt pretty confident about this plan until a few of the other mothers looked at me like I was completely nuts – and advised me to put away my breakables.

I’ve invited the other mothers to hang around and enjoy our balcony during the party. There is one mother I am particularly interested in hi-jacking. She’s a kindergarten teacher.

Wish me luck.

At least I’ve already got his present: a pair of Hot Wheels roller blades and an assortment of Cars cars. His two fondest wishes.

A friend sent this to me recently and it was just too funny not to share!

A Mom’s Song by Anita Renfroe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlY8STkhopc)

I haven’t mentioned it lately, but I have actually been working pretty steadily on my current project. Only you know how that goes – all work and no play… Or maybe that’s just an excuse because I feel like taking a break for a few days.

I’m in a Martha-Stewart-sort-of-mood. I want to cook and catch up on little chores around the house that I’ve been letting slide. And I want to sew. Playing with my fabric is usually helpful when I’m at a stopping point in a project and need to collect my thoughts and let things stew. So that’s what I’m doing.

Yesterday I made fresh pesto from a pot of basil I have and banana muffins. Today I plan to make what my mother-in-law affectionately calls “junk” soup – you throw in whatever you have around the kitchen – along with some biscuits.

And I decided to whip up some Halloween pillow cases for my children using a simple pattern I ran across on the internet. Quick and easy but they should score me big mommy-points, don’t you think?

Everyone is off next week for the Eid-Al-Fitr holiday (the end of Ramadan) But when the children go back to school, my youngest will start going a full day. I’ll have two extra hours to myself and NO excuse not to get more done in a day!!