We spent much of the day today with our dear friends the Uhrigs. They saw our new digs, we had brunch, “the grown-ups talked and talked and talked” (this is a direct quote from Kyle), the kids played and played and played (you can quote me on that), there was a kids vs. dads basketball match (and later, a re-match), we took a walk on campus, went out for ice cream and coffee, hung out, and generally had a very fabulous time. The J-Ms love the Uhrigs.
I have always felt like you need to go through all four seasons in a place before you really know it. When we moved to campus Braydon and I promised each other that we’d see our family through all four seasons before we made any firm proclamations about what we thought of this new life of ours. So, the snow seemed especially pronounced when it came for the first time this week.
The campus was beautiful, especially up here on the hill where we live. It was a bright white snow that stuck to the trees. Even the deer, that we see in the woods almost daily, seemed more breathtaking in the crisp white of it.
We don’t need to have the driveway plowed; we don’t need to shovel our paths; or lay down salt; or worry about a thing where our home is concerned. It is all done for us. By a budget that is not ours, and by people we so deeply appreciate. A year ago I couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like to have those burdens lifted. Now I just relish the relief of it.
But the most profound difference with this snow — compared to all the others in the past eight years — was that I could easily and seamlessly take a chunk of time away from my office/work/day to play in the snow with my child. I’ve forced myself in the past. But this time was different: it wasn’t forced. It felt easy and light. I was, after-all, right here.
When home is work and work is home it can sometimes feel like it is all work. But sometimes (lucky for me, it is often), it is actually the opposite– and it feels like all play.
Students at Sayre saw us playing. They walked past us on the pathways and they looked out their dorm room windows. I wondered what they were thinking as I watched them watch us, them trying to hide smiles, but with smiles creeping across their faces nonetheless. Here, at one of the biggest crunch times of the year, smack in the middle of the 2nd to last week of classes, when the pressure cooker is blasting on ‘high’ and we’re a week away from finals and the tension in the air of campus is so thick you could slice it with a knife… here, amidst all the stress and angst and aggravation… here, amidst the self-doubt and insecurity and desperation to prove ourselves… here, on campus, during the first snow, is a tenured professor building snowmen and making snow angels with her four-year-old sprightly daughter.
You couldn’t miss us in the lawn of Sayre– Meera with her pink snowsuit and shrill shrieking laughter as she ran in the snow-covered lawn and called out to students, with clumps of snow in her mittens, “You should taste this! It’s delicious!!!” I wondered then, and I wonder now, what those kids all thought, and felt.
We invited some of them to play with us, but most of them declined, unthinkingly, quickly saying, “I can’t! I have to study!” Meera knows they have to study. She hears it all the time. So she’d run off smiling, totally unaffected. “You know?” I’d call out, “You can learn so much more from this four year old than you ever could from those books in your backpack!” And they’d smile or chuckle and wave back at me as they shuffled off to the library to study.
This afternoon we celebrated the snow and worked really hard on this snow-individual. Meera insisted that it was not a “snowMAN,” but rather a “snowGIRL.” Our neighbor/friend/student Aymee is one of our favorites. She ran out into the snow to make sure she could get a picture of her with Meera and the “snowGIRL” in Lehigh’s first snow of the season. I love love love all three girls in this photo!
After the boys headed out for school, Meera had a chance to try out her “sled-board” with Niomi. Sometimes it doesn’t matter there isn’t really enough snow to sled; it’s all in the experience of it. Not sure Niomi had the same experience Meera did however.
The bambinos had the whole week of Thanksgiving off from school. Here’s our Top Ten Things We Did List (in chronological order):
- Weekend get-away to Hope Lake Loge and Indoor Water Park.
- Oh, yes, call us crazy: we volunteered to host Kyle’s school class pets for the week (two hamsters). Meera absolutely adored them.
- We watched the premiere of Disney’s Sophia the First. Then watched it about a half dozen more times through the week.
- Lots of downtime, at home, including lots of time at the art table– and not even just by Meera (K & O too! gasp!! and voluntarily!!!)
- K & O got to see Meera’s gymnastics class (they are usually in school on Tuesdays when she has gymnastics). She’s been taking gymnastics since September, so it was a big deal for her brothers to get to watch her and cheer her on. Usually it is the other way around (Meera watching and cheering on her brothers’ sports). It was a really, really special time. It was the highlight of my week to see K & O’s pride and joy from watching Meera, and Meera’s pride and joy from having her brothers watch her.
- A “First Friday” on a Tuesday. It was Meera and Papi’s turn (they went to Cosi for soup and salad, then painted pottery together). At home, K & O & Mommy had take-out and watched The Hunger Games. Not sure who had the best time because it was such good times all around. We love our First Fridays.
- Thanksgiving! Our Thanksgiving was celebrated with a big visit from Grandpa Robert (from Georgia!), Gamma (from Massachusetts!), and Auntie Sabrina (from Washington, DC!)! They came Wednesday night and stayed until Saturday. Lots of time with them, and they got to see our new home. Highlights — according to the bambinos — were: playing football, watching football, and giving our special guests a walking tour of “our” campus.
- We bought Thanksgiving dinner from Wegmans. This deserves its own line on this list because it made Mama’s life soooooo much easier! Thank you Wegmans!!! (Photo below of Kyle, who went with me to pick up the Wegmans order on Thanksgiving, and then helped me wheel it into our apartment, complete with basketball on top! love that boy!)
- Over the course of the week I read to Kyle and Owen the entire first book of Amare’e Stoudemire’s STAT: Standing Tall and Talented series. They loved it (both the book, and getting to stay up much later than Meera for me to read it to them every night). P.S. Coming soon: I am planning a big blog post about some amazing books for black boys that we’ve read over the past several months.
- We spent the last day of the school vacation week doing one of the things we love most — a day trip to NYC. First stop: the Macy’s Holiday Windows. So awesome. But the real reason we go to NYC: Joe’s Shanghai. Our beloved Chinatown restaurant with the most awe-inspiring soup dumplings on the planet. My mouth is watering just typing this. A trip to Joe’s Shanghai makes everything right. It is our family’s Happy Place (if you type “Joe’s Shanghai” into our search engine on the right side-bar of this blog you’ll see some examples of our times at Joe’s Shanghai… our kids are growing up going to this place). P.S. This time we reached a new level: we devoured a full FIVE steamer baskets of dumplings.
We left NYC, driving home, sipping our hot bubble tea, with a beautiful sunset over the highway. We came home to gear up for this week of back-to-school/work. We are ready for the holiday season. It was a good Thanksgiving Break Week.
In our decision to move to campus, Braydon and I always factored in that there would be certain weekends and times of year that we’d have to go away. We knew there were a few key times that would be important for us to exit the scene — mainly Lehigh-Lafayette weekend, and the Eagles Summer Training Camp (and, in addition, possibly some Greek Week/Rush times as well… although, at this point, I’m pretty confident we won’t need to worry too much about those).
For our first Lehigh-Lafayette Weekend Away we decided to do something totally kid-centric and very unlike our daily-life-on-campus. We decided to go somewhere where we’d be practically guaranteed to not run into any college-aged students. A true Get-Away Mini-Vaca!
There was very little we needed to do to prep for this trip… other than this for Meera and I the Sunday before:
Friday afternoon we picked up the kids from the bus with the car packed. And then made the short 3-hour trek, to the Fingerlakes Region of New York, to Hope Lake Lodge. The main attraction for us? The Cascades Indoor Waterpark. We had never been to an indoor water park. It did not disappoint. And everyone there was pretty much either a parent or a (relatively) youngish child (i.e., no college kids). It was a great place to take a break from our reality.
The bambinos were in heaven! Their favorite part? The water slides.
We knew K & O would be in their glory. But we hadn’t anticipated how much Meera would love the water slides too. She is just like her brothers: a fearless, water-loving, ear-to-ear-smiling, fully-immersed-in-the-moment-of-it, little dare-devil. She rode those water slides again and again and again.
We had hoped it would be a great way to spend the weekend. It was. It was also an amazing bonding experience to get away from campus, just the five of us, and focus in on just our little family. By mid-morning Saturday I could already see the sibling bonding that was happening — it was awesome to see it. I guess an indoor water park can be a great place for family bonding. Who knew?! (That, alone, was worth every penny.)
We just had so much fun.
My favorite part was the indoor-outdoor heated swimming pool. We spent a lot of time in that pool that day. (And we all got quite a kick out of seeing the lifeguards in parkas, boots, and wool hats!)
The resort was really nice, which was great, because we spent the rest of our time just hanging out in our room. We did our own food for breakfasts and lunch, and got room service both nights for dinner. The kids watched a lot of Disney Channel (funny thing: they have no clue that we have Disney Channel at home… they somehow think that this is something that is only available at hotels!?!!! We’re not doing anything to correct them on that anytime soon). Braydon and I drank gin & tonics and talked and talked (our favorite pastime). We all went to bed late and woke up even later. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a lazy, sit-around-the-hotel-room, trip. The fact that our room/suite was so clean, cozy, and well-equipped made it possible to truly just sink in deep and relax.
After I got Meera to bed Saturday night, Braydon took the boys back to the water park for some late-night fun to max out our water park passes. They probably could have stayed there forever. I think we went for just the perfect amount of time: a quick, 2-night, weekend of water-logged fun. And then we came back home to a very tame (and quiet, tired, hung-over) campus on Sunday afternoon. A great Lehigh-Lafayette weekend for the J-Ms!
Sometimes you have to just let things unfold. And when you do, it can be wonderful.
Catching up on research. Students carrying a keyboard into the lodge. Boys asking to play soccer. After a “stress relieving” game, discovering the piano leading to hanging out and playing four hands (or at least an 8-year old’s version, which includes sticking hands into the piano).
Learning to blend work with life: for us, for students; as a role model.
Sometimes an impromptu transcends.
Lehigh-Lafayette Weekend. The energy on this campus right now is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! When we decided to live on campus we knew from the start that we’d go away for this weekend. As exciting as it all is, it just isn’t the place for the bambinos to be (let alone their parents). Since living here we’ve remarked again and again and again that it is soooo much more quiet and soooo much more tame than we ever expected it would be. The last two nights have been the most rowdy — by far — and we’d rather not be here to witness whatever goes down for the next two. So, we’re glad we made this plan in advance. We’re exiting the scene for a couple of days. I keep telling students, “Have fun! And be safe!”… and I mean it.
GO LEHIGH!
We had a great day today with our dear friends the the Petsch family. A Saturday of tailgating, football gaming (Lehigh vs. Colgate… too bad, LU lost), and catching up by non-stop playing (the kids) and non-stop chatting (the parents). So much fun. True ‘family friends’ — like, when one whole family truly gets along with another whole family — are super special. And it is an extra special time in friendship when “new friends” start to become more like “old friends.” It is starting to feel like the Petsch’s and us go way, way back (check out this post: click here). We love you Lori, Shelli, and Zoe! xo
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