30 of 365

January 30, 2009

Another day, another hoodie

Thank heavens he is still holding up the wall.

This ‘n That

January 29, 2009

This is the BEST thing that I have cooked in a long, long time. You should make it. Right now. No seriously, RIGHT NOW.

And then invite me over.

*****

You want to know something funny? I wrote my last post thinking that it was about how I am choosing to be happy, but for many of you it didn’t read that way.

I honestly am not depressed. I do not need medication. I was in that place after Miles born, a place I never want to revisit, and I can say that I am nowhere near there. Could I benefit from a little sunlight? Sure! A little less stress? Sure! A beach with a tasty mixed drink served by a hot cabana boy? Well, who couldn’t? I am human after all.

But you know what? Chinese food is a close second.

Treading Water

January 28, 2009

When people ask me how I am this has been my standard response. “I am treading water.”

It is an improvement on a couple weeks ago when my honest answer would have been, “I am drowning.”

At least treading water implies that you are actively fighting.

My Christmas tree is still up.

There are still random decorations around the house. Though I have been carrying them to the dining room as I think of it and piling them on the dining room table. My dining room sort of looks like Christmas vomited in it. And that is putting it nicely.

In a fit of anger, one of my son’s punched a hole in the wall. A wall with wallpaper.

I took the lazy way out and “repaired” it by cutting out a piece of wallpaper, matching up the pattern, and gluing it to the wall. You can’t even tell it is there. I am equal parts amazed by my mad wallpapering skillz and horrified that I even considered it as a legitimate repair. Maybe this is how it began with the previous owners of our house. Next thing you know I will be using duct tape instead of nails to hold things together.

I hate winter. I know, I know, everyone says it. But I don’t think they mean it as much as I do.

So what turned me around from drowning to treading water? It is never the big things. It is the small ones that make all of the difference.

I went to Staples where I indulged in my unhealthy love of office supplies.

I had a conversation with a friend that I thought was mad at me, though for the life of me could not figure out why. Turns out she just has a Miles who “helps” with their voice mail and routinely erases their messages. I love her enough to buy her story. Because I know I am always full of good intentions and not so full on the follow through. If I were the New Year resolution type that would be one thing I would want to change about myself.

Heh. After I just typed that I sat back and thought for a moment. Do I mean I would resolve to quit having the good intentions? Or resolve to follow through? And just the fact that I had to sit and consider that a moment proves to me that I am not ready to change.

I cut my own hair and it LOOKS GOOD. As opposed to when I tried to do my own eyebrows, the result of which was NOT GOOD.

Another friend invited us to her house, on a beach, next month. Where it is warm and NOT snowing. Instead of thinking of all the reasons we couldn’t do it, I immediately said yes.

I may just get around to taking that Christmas tree down… next month.

23 and 24 of 365

January 24, 2009

The End, No Really This Time. Really.

Last night was the football banquet. The final football thing in a season that seems to have lasted for an entire year.

I’m really not complaining though. We have thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

My son is standing up there with his head coach getting a prestigious, yet little known, award. The “Making weight and then destroying the Ponderosa buffet” award. We are so proud.

It was a long event, with speeches, awards, and even more speeches. Miles entertained himself thoroughly by playing in his water glass and licking the water off of his fingers. The things you are willing to let your children do just so that they will be quiet. He also held his fingers up and shouted “TOUCHDOWN!” on the top of his lungs anytime there was applause. A few of those times he flipped the bird to the entire room. But it was a room full of football players, not high tea with Junior Women’s League, so I like to think that he fit in just fine.

And because there is no rest for the weary, this morning we got out all the baseball gear in anticipation of the season starting a few weeks. Everyone tried on their cleats and pants, and we examined gloves and bags, and we wondered where random items could have possibly disappeared. Call me crazy, but I am fairly certain everyone always came home wearing BOTH cleats, one on each foot, but I guess anything is possible.

This will be Miles first year playing. On a 4 yr old AND UNDER team. Could you just die from the potential cuteness and comic relief? He is so excited that he can’t even contain himself. When we found out about the team my 5 yr old said, “Well, at least now he won’t have to keep talking about his imaginary team.

The thing that is the cutest of all? The way his older brothers are excited for him. I am not sure that there will be many other kids who are lucky enough to have 5 older baseball playing brothers cheering for them.

I told Miles that there was going to be a team for him this year, he said, “I have been waiting since I was a baby!”

Indeed he has.

22 of 365

January 23, 2009

Making a Wish

21 of 365

January 22, 2009

The Babies eat lunch

I still call them “The Babies.” Yes, I know at 4 and 5 years old they technically are not babies. In fact they roll their eyes at me and tell me every day that they are not babies.

Well, Miles has been known to embrace the “Baby” title when it suits him. He will get up in the morning and if I am already downstairs he will come running into the room shouting, “Here comes your baby!” Or if he doesn’t feel like turning on the bathroom light himself. “But I am just a baby!” Or if walking across the parking lot is too much. “I have tired wittle wegs because I am a baby!”

The Babies are on a Fluff and peanut butter sandwich kick right now. Cut into quarters. Hers in triangles. His in “tiny squares.” He refuses to eat the crust. You do not want to endure their wrath if you cut their sandwiches wrong. Those Babies are picky.

My oldest son asks me how long I am going to keep calling them The Babies. I don’t know.
“The Babies need a ride back to college.” Yeah, that sounds fine to me.

The Babies are already prepared for college life. I ask them all the time if it is lunch time or play time.

They aren’t sure.

Eating lunch is just way too funny….the opportunities for burping, showing the food in your mouth, and making a mess.

I couldn’t decide which one of the photos in this series was my pick for the day. Each one of them makes me smile. My favorite is the fifth one down, but technically it isn’t a great photo since everything is blurry. But that is sort of how things look when you are holding a camera and laughing, in spite of yourself.

20 of 365

The Stirrups

Yes, I know I am late posting this. But in my defense my computer is trying to die. It shuts down at the most inopportune times. Apparently it needs a new motherboard, or so some tech in India tells me. Since it is still under warranty, because it is only 8 months old, I have someone coming out here to my house tomorrow morning to replace it.

Yesterday I had my annual girlie bit check-up. See my nicely folded clothes sitting on the chair? All the underwear tucked neatly inside the other clothes. Sure, you can look in my vagina, but I don’t want you to see my underwear or bra.

The dr said my pulse and blood pressure were nice and low and questioned whether I worked out. I hesitated and finally told her, “I think about working out. Does that count?”

Not Just a Day Off (19 of 365)

January 19, 2009

This is what we did during breakfast this morning. Watched Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have A Dream speech and talked about civil rights.

My children watch the speech and think that it was something in the very distant past. After all there wasn’t even color tv back then! They can not even grasp why people would care about the color of the skin of someone else.

“But, why?” they keep asking.

I have no answer.

“People don’t still think that, do they?” they ask.

Tommorrow we will watch Barack Obama become the 44th president of the United States.

And I am thankful that this is their normal.

18 of 365

January 18, 2009

This is my partner in crime, or shovelling, as the case may be. The two of us have a system down. It has turned into a time for the two of us to spend alone talking, because Lord knows the other kids scatter at the mention of shovelling.

He gets to tell in my excruciating detail about the latest episode of How It’s Made. Or Mythbusters. Or ask me questions like, “What percentage of people do you think actually buy things from telemarketers?” and tell me trivia he has picked up from his voracious reading.

I mostly nod and smile and throw out an occasional, “Wow, that is fascinating!”

And while the questions themselves might not be fascinating, or constant stream of “fun facts,” it is fascinating to listen to him and hear how his mind works.

17 of 365

January 17, 2009

Saturday night dinner

I’d love to say that I made this myself. From scratch.
But that would be lying.