Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

My daughter has told me repeatedly over the last few weeks that she wants Silly Putty for Christmas.  That should be with a little trademark R next to it. But I cannot buy her Silly Putty.  The stretchy flesh colored stuff of our childhood for me holds a memory, laughable now, but still all to clear, though it is more than two years old. Waiting in line at the Celle train station, trying to figure out what kind of monthly pass I need in order to get Elisabeth to school every day.  Unable to speak in German, still jetlagged, wishing that I didn't have to be there by myself with the kids, angry with John for working and leaving this mess to me, angry that we had to be so far away from the school, drowning in my little sea of sorrows and self pity, adding an additional 100 Euro to the tally of wasted money spent out of ignorance on the wrong train pass . . .and the children are playing with Silly Putty.   Oh first it was good.  Indeed, it was gre...

We’ve reached a new stage of homeschooling, one in which I am seeing my little self growing up all over again.  Maybe this time I’ll get it right. What I mean is this: I remember getting angry and frustrated in math.  What I mostly remember is in high school, but somehow I don’t doubt that I got frustrated in elementary school as well.  I remember sitting on the sofa with my dad, him looking at the book and trying to help me with a problem.  But by that point I was already so closed to the process that I could not open up again to get help.  I would sit there and stew and think, “This is so stupid.  Who cares about this.  I hate this . . .”  Now if only Elisabeth could know that about me, as I sit at the kitchen table and try to help her with long division.  On the one hand, I’m quite excited that she’s gotten to this point.  We are finally to something that is so different from what she’s done.  Related, yes, but new....

To walk in warm rain and get wetter and wetter October 2012 Last week we had a good rainy afternoon.  Earlier in the day I had taken the kids to the YMCA for their P.E. class.  I had asked my friend Wendy if she would walk with me while our kids were at P.E., but then it started raining.  To my delight and hers, we found that we are truly compatible as we could both enjoy a walk in the rain together . . .with umbrellas.  But the conversation flowed just as well as it does on a sunny day, if not better. After P.E. I drove the kids home and they asked eagerly, “Can we take a walk in the rain?  We can wear our boots and jump in puddles.” I chuckled to myself, because over the past 2 years boots were crucial to survival in Hannover, and never did the kids want to go for a walk in the rain.  9 times out of 10 if it was raining it was a cold rain, and we had just been walking in it out of necessity, and we were happy to get inside and dry off and ge...

This Sunday in The Woodlands The weather got a little cooler here in the Houston area . . .for a couple of days.  It was already warming back to the 80s today.  But on Sunday we got to wear sweaters and realize that no, we won’t be able to wear sandals all year long. At church I spoke with a friend who was asking how our transition was going, saying that he felt for us, having to leave Germany after just two years.  It nearly made me cry, but at the same time I was grateful for his understanding.  He knows from personal experience the work it takes to move and adjust overseas.   I’ve been looking over my notes and writings from the last two Octobers and Novembers.  Wow--the seasons are really different!  It does feel like continual summer here and, well, I’m not minding it.  Not right now, at least! The entry below was mostly written on a Sunday in November, 2011, when John was in the U.S. for about two weeks.  It was ...

Editor’s note: I typed this on my iPhone en route from Houston to Hannover in August of 2011.  At the end of this flight, in the Munich airport Henry ran a few steps to sit by me, but ended up hitting his head on the row of metal seats.  A trip by airport ambulance to the airport clinic added an extra stop and meant missing our connecting flight.  That’s another story.  Indulge me in reliving some thoughts from over a year ago . . . Wednesday, August 17 2011 Sitting on airplane at 10 pm Houston time. Both kids are asleep with their heads on my lap. It is picturesque, but it only happened after I refused to get Henry a snack because I had just fallen asleep when he woke me to say his movie was done. "I want something to eat!" It should come as a relief that he is hungry, but I was hoping to regain my sleep state and told him he'd have to wait. Really this has been an easy trip so far. But it started with some anxiety. We woke up this morning at 6:3...

Yesterday I celebrated my 40th birthday.  One of the cool things about turning 40 is that I can now multiply my kids' ages by each other and it equals me.  It will only last for another 20 days or, and then one will be nine.  I wonder--will such an equation happen again?  There's an algebra problem for you. But, since I am not the sum of my children, or neither am I the product of my children, (though they are the product of, well, anyway) . . .I have thought about some other things recently. We have so much.  We had a big cake in celebration and there is lots left over.  We had lots of bottles of wine and sparkling water in the fridge and there are lots left over.  We run the tap to get the water warm and it just goes down the drain.  So much water, and it is all clean.  I am grateful for the sun that shines on us and the rain that poured on us today.  I'm grateful for the time to play and relax, to be busy and learn.  I'm gr...

Stefanie is our new German tutor.  She lives 30 minutes away, but it isn’t a freeway drive, so that is nice.  Instead we drive by farmer’s markets, over train tracks and under huge trees that have been trimmed for years away from the power lines so now they lean precariously over the road.  For the last three weeks we’ve been listening to a book on CD entitled Stowaway .  Sometimes when we arrive I’m wiping the tears from my eyes. On the first day when I asked Elisabeth if I should stay in the room with her she gave me a little push and said, “ Mom , I’ve been to school.”  Her session went by quickly and easily and I thought, “Wow! She knows a lot of German.”  Perhaps it is all about context--now that we are here, it seems like more.  Or perhaps I never gave her enough credit over there.  In any case, she is used to using her German in an academic context,  so this works well for her. Henry’s sessions are a little bit more like a t...