It's been an odd day out here in the country with the 3 kids. The boys didn't have preschool so... what to do? Skipper threw up 3 times yesterday so that means we cant go to the gym either even though he seems fine now.
Usually my thought process is "ok I can stay home with them and deal with the fighting/ complaining until nap time (my oldest is so social that he is too bored here) or I can go through the hassle of driving forever to get somewhere and they will fight me on it when it's time to leave and then I'll hear them going ballistic in the back until we get home.
See, we live half an hour from anything out here in the country. Also am I the only one who's kids won't fall asleep in the car? Tell me I'm not alone.... trying to drive to a city was just not happening today.
However, ten minutes away was supposedly a strange hidden new school out here in the middle of nowhere where, where Elijah may go to kindergarten in the fall.
I did need to get in his application for a lottery to get into this progressive tiny public grade school for next year, so I thought I'd take them with me to drop that off since it's the one place only ten minutes away. Besides that one weird bar.
I had found out about it through a woman who was beading behind the counter of a small novelty store I stumbled into in town while Christmas shopping this winter.
"I have 7 kids and they all went there" She said. "It's public, free, but they do things differently...more out-of-the-box than other schools. You can only get your kid in by the kindergarten lottery, or if thier sibling already goes there. It's totally hidden out in the country by the road you live on - you have to check it out!"
I nodded, in shock that I'm actually adultish enough to have a kid who's going into kindergarten.
With my son's preemie issues and unusually high activity level, I know he needs something out of the ordinary when it comes time for grade school. I had looked up Prarie Creek Elementary school and it sounds awesome!
So for today I just packed up all 3 and we drove down the dirt roads while I looked for the school in the general area I thought it might be (left my phone to charge at home and didn't think to write down directions.)
After going down several dirt roads seemingly leading to nowhere, I just stumbled upon it.
Nestled within pine trees and between two farms - an Adobe school that looked like it belonged in Mexico. "We're here!" The boys were so excited. Inside it was so strange... a maze-like library right there in the entrance with halls of kids books when you walk in.
We all looked up to see about 8 large animal crafts looming over us suspended from the ceiling made from exotic fabrics and metals.
There were plants and aquariums just lining the walls everywhere. Funky stained glass all around. What is this place? You would never guess in the middle of boring Minnesota farmland there is this eccentric place!
We dropped off the application but the boys were too excited in the parking lot to go home so I had to think fast. "OK, I said "want me to take you to play at some really big rocks?"
Yep. A cemetery. It was on the way back about 7 minutes from my house. That or drive half hour to somewhere else.
So we went to this lone plot of grave stones out there by the dirt road with nothing surrounding it but rolling fields of soon-to-be crops. I parked, let them all out. It was so windy! Out here Ive found that in spring the wind is faster than I knew wind could be because there's nothing to stop it.
I crouched behind a huge tombstone just to get out of the wind while my boys chased each other. A guy in a tractor drove by to the next feild and I felt self-conscious. "I hope I'm not wrong in bringing them to play here, running on top of people's bones and all" I thought.
The wind whipped as I watched Hadassah crawling in her cute pink jumpsuit right over a small square stone with "BABY, 1902" etched in it. She happily squealed while clumsily crawling over fresh grass for the first time ever, trying to get to her rowdy brothers.
"Gosh 1902! How sad...just a baby. My kids are so new to this world in the grand scheme of things!" I thought. This is a weird day for sure. As I rounded up the boys for mac n cheese at home (they had found some cool civil war era tombstones), they had A LOT of questions about death.
Thinking now as they nap. I don't feel super disrespectful. I do think bones are sacred. But its not like we dug anything up. I think it was good. The earth is here for those of us who are living. And we're using it.
What is my long-winded point? You have to make do with what you've got, where your at. If it means finding wierd hidden magical schools, and chasing down kids in a graveyard. Wherever you are, you are here now, where you are for a reason. Use what is around you, and become apart of it.
P.S. I just got fliers in my mailbox for a townhall meeting tonight to pick a town supervisor. The townhall for Greenvale Township here is a tiny pole vault barn in the center of some massive cornfields. For the sake of everything cute in this world - I think I might attend. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment