So in trying to find something to smile about in all of this, I thought that my downshift into a snail's pace means that I will have time to smell the roses. All of them. Twice over.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Bouncing back...
So in trying to find something to smile about in all of this, I thought that my downshift into a snail's pace means that I will have time to smell the roses. All of them. Twice over.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Elasticity
| Funny thing about the examination room...we were in this same exact spot with Colin almost two months ago, when he broke his leg. |
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Simple Women's Daybook Entry

I am thinking... about the week ahead. A lot of loose ends need to be tied up. We need to wrap up Jordan's school work for the *year* by the end of this week. His subscription to his science class (Plato) ends in August, but beyond the end of this week he will only be around here for a couple days here and there until mid-August, and so we have the entire second semester of lessons and activites for both Chemistry and Physical Science to cram in this week. yay......
I am thankful... For the beautiful bright greens of the leaves that seem to glow as they filter the sun from above. I am also thankful for all the yardwork that my husband and kids did over the weekend - the yard looks nice and ready for a week of play in the sunshine.
From the Learning Rooms... Lots and lots of science (yay), our last homeschool PE class is on Wednesday, and the End of Year Picnic & Field Day is on Thursday. Plus all of the regular stuff in-between everything else..
In the kitchen... A mess. Last night I made cupcakes for Rylan's make-up birthday dinner w/ family. Chocolate with vanilla icing and strawberries.
I am wearing... Knit skirt and shirt. My favorite kind of stuff to wear during the day. I need a ton more skirts. And shorts. Can you believe I have NO shorts anymore? The last pair I had wore out last summer, and I never replaced them.
I am creating... This week - nothing - there is no time... :(
I am going... today I am going to the store because we have nothing to eat for the week. Today is also our usual Park Day, but I am thinking we will skip it for today. We have so much to get done, and Jordan's schoolwork for this week is the priority. Late this afternoon I am picking up my race packet for the 5K I am
I am wondering... About the two turtles I special-ordered for Rylan yesterday. They are to arrive on June 10th. It occurred to me, 0.9827349872 seconds after clicking the 'confirm order' button, that I have no idea if I will be getting two males, two females, or one of each?? This might be a good thing to know...
I am reading... Still finishing Parenting Beyond Belief, which is due back to the library tomorrow and I've already renewed it once.
In the garden... A very enthusiastic rhubarb plant that is going just a bit crazy...I need to make something with it this week - Rylan has been requesting a rhubarb crisp. We can have some for Tuesday Teatime!
I am hoping... That we get through this week in one piece, yet enjoy it, since Jordan will be leaving for most of the summer at the week's end.
I am looking forward to... Sunday evening. It is this huge mental thing for me just to get through this week, to see several obligations through to their end and then I can relax.
I am learning... About Southern Painted Turtles, acrylic adhesives, heat lamps and salmonella. I am also learning about France, as I trace my mom's journey along the Rhone river, where she is currently traveling aboard a river-cruise ship for a week. She toured about Lyon over the weekend, visiting a market and winery. So jealous... (Glad you are having fun, mom!!!! :)
I am hearing... Rylan making hot chocolate, Owen cracking a hard-boiled egg, the hum of the fish tank and birdies.
Around the house... Jordan and Colin are sleeping in (it is currently 8:46 a.m.). Today we begin combing through Jordan's packing list for SeaBase and combating the laundry pile(s).
I am pondering... turtle diets... it's a bit complicated!
One of my favorite things... early mornings - the birds and the quiet - with hot coffee. happy sigh.
A few plans for the rest of the week... makeup, fussy hair and pictures for today and tomorrow. Tomorrow night we have our last homeschool board meeting for the year, and this is also my last official duty. I am stepping away from the board and my duties that lie therein. It is a good feeling. The board is such a nice group of ladies - I'll probably still attend meetings next year, just for the camaraderie. We have the end-of-year picnic on Thursday - we are bringing water balloons. The weather looks like it will stay 85F and sunny through Thursday, so that will be perfect. The last time it got cold, and water balloons were not all that fun. I think the kids threw them at trees instead...lol. Friday will be a frenzied packing day for Jordan. He leaves for SeaBase at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning. Saturday is the day that I run (ahem) a 5K, and Rylan does a Kids' fun run. Neither of us kept up with our training schedule this month because we both got sick. We will be walking this week and maybe run a few short bits so that we can both run at least a little bit. Rylan has a total of nine fun runs throughout this summer, so pretty soon she will be able to run the whole mile. Before I got sick I was averaging 3 miles a day, walking a mile - mile and a half, and running the other bit. I'll have to start at "0" again... :/
Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...
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| Beaujolais Region, France Please insert me here...with a glass of something cold and fruity... (photo courtesy of my mom..of whom I did not ask permission, but I am sure she wouldn't mind) (Well...pretty sure...) |
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Thursday, May 22, 2014
The night I didn't exactly sleep like a baby..
| CPAP mask I used last night |
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Knowing what we know
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
The week where we cancelled just about everything...
| Rylan on her birthday afternoon. She isn't feeling too hot.. :( |
Jordan was next. Jordan is leaving for a scuba diving trip in just two short weeks - the last thing he needed was a head cold, considering he had burst his eardrum on Christmas Eve during the last cold, but germs don't seem to care about plans like that. Rylan finally ate a single bite of birthday cake on Wednesday night. She had skipped scouts that day - more due to her brothers than to her, but she did go to her ballet class late that afternoon.
Dean came down with it and stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday, running the occasional temp. We skipped a morning of play and work time we had planned to spend with the other girl scout leader and her three girls, and rested the rest of the day. Friday seemed to be a good day for the kids, so we left Dean at home to fend for his sick self, and we took off for Colorado Springs to take part in a field trip to the Air Force Academy for Jordan. Even though we don't officially start up with Colorado Calvert Academy until the fall semester begins, Jordan was invited to go on this field trip with other Calvert eighth graders for a tour of the campus. I'm glad everyone was feeling good enough that we could go. I gave a Jordan a don't-you-dare-cough-on-anyone lecture and we left him with a fellow homeschool friend and her mom (they are the ones that introduced us to Calvert) and wandered around the area for a couple of hours to kill time. I took the kids by a B-52 that is on permanent display, and then that was about all there was to see on the Academy grounds, so we drove to the east, into the Black Forest, an area that was devastated by wild fire not quite even a year ago yet. It was certainly a sight to see. I was curious to see if La Foret, the UCC church camp that I attended in my youth was still standing, and to my relief it was. The kids and I drove onto the grounds, and circled just a bit. It looked very familiar, and I wish I could have wandered around on foot, but I didn't feel comfortable asking. We drove back down the road to a parking lot we had seen for a recreation area, and got out to walk a trail through the blackened forest for a bit. I'm glad no one else was around because I'm sure it would have been a sad scene to listen to three kids hack and cough and wheeze as they ran back and forth along the trail.
We went back to pick up Jordan and then made a bee-line back up the interstate to none other than IKEA! I just about peed my pants when we passed it on the way down. It has been open for what...three years now? And I haven't been there yet. So I WENT. :) The place is huge, confusing, and I have a few unkind things to say to the men (obviously) who designed the layout, even though I know the effed-up plan is all in an effort to control 'flow'... but if you are someone like me, who leaves her wallet in the car and only figures that out while trying to pay for food in the cafeteria, it is damned near impossible to make a dash for the parking garage in any kind of quick manner. I am proud to say that we spent a whopping $17. We came home with a new wastebasket for the office, and plastic snack cups, bowls and plates. My husband got off very easy. This time...
Saturday morning I woke up and well...wanted to die. It may have been a cold for the rest of the family, but for me late Friday evening into Saturday morning felt like the flu. Everything hurt. I could even feel my insides hurting. I don't think that another single ounce of snot could have been packed into my sinuses. Despite feeling like curling into the fetal position, Dean and I dressed up, traveled across town and spent a scant 15 minutes congratulating a young man (who will forever be a sweet little toddler in my mind's-eye), on his high school graduation. Austen was a wee 5 months when I first started nannying for him and his older sisters, and the next seven years I spent with them were very happy ones - gosh I love their family. They were kind enough to host our wedding in their gorgeous backyard almost nine years ago, and so it was nice to be at their home again, for one last time. They are empty-nesters come this fall, so they are putting their home on the market this summer. I remember when it was built. I dragged the Austen and his sisters over there when they were pouring the concrete and each of them placed their hand prints on the front sidewalk.
| The garden area where we got married nine years ago |
Dean picked me afterwards, with all the kids in tow, and we -as promised to our birthday girl - set out to start our quest to build a turtle enclosure that will sit on top of our present fish tank. All week, between episodes of dealing with sneezy, wheezy and snotty kids, we had been doing research on how to go about this. It has been a crash-course in all things turtle - habitat, keeping, species...blah, blah, blah. Rylan has settled on a Southern Painted turtle, which is one that swims and basks - hence the need for a basking area above the water. I'll go into more detail in another post. What it meant on this day was three hours of going from store to store to store gathering the different items we needed. Turtles are a real pain in the ass, if you ask me. I wish she had asked for a kitten.
On Sunday we went to my nephew's graduation party. He had his ceremony on Tuesday, and now it was time to party. We all went, I greeted people with a safety sick perimeter around me and we didn't stay too long. It was nice to see some of my SIL's family that came and family friends, I wish I had felt better.
And that was our week. It was a week I had been looking forward to - a birthday and two graduations, and to miss some of it was very frustrating. There is also that strange freedom you feel though, as you cancel things right and left... that you get to stay home and do nothing because nobody feels like doing anything anyway... and suddenly you feel a lot more relaxed and at peace. Note to self though - I need to have a batch of chicken noodle soup, frozen and ready to go for the next time.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Moms' Night Out: A movie review
This past Saturday afternoon I joined a few of my homeschooling mom friends for a couple hours of fun and freedom to take in the movie 'Moms' Night Out'. I had seen the preview at the beginning of the month, and I was really looking forward to it because it looked like it was pretty funny, but not in a silly farce type of way. Luckily I went into the movie not knowing about the mixed reception it was getting in social media, because..
I LOVED it!
Social media and all the men (!) and women waving their feminist flags can shut the hell up, because this movie nailed it. What is 'it'? Why, it's the inner thoughts and life experiences of the stay-at-home-mom, or SAHM. The raw truth of how much it can suck yet be wonderful all at the same time hurt me in a way that is hard to describe, but it was a good kind of hurt. For once, up there on the big screen, was a woman who was so like me inside her head that it was pretty damn scary. Like, really scary.
I love my life. I really do. But the hard days can sometimes be too much. The child who you thought was potty trained has six separate accidents. And that's just in the morning. The child who insists on pouring his own cup of juice from the full gallon of apple juice. And misses. The dentist appointments, the realization of forgotten ballet shoes upon arrival at class, the child who refuses to go to bed, or get out of bed, pick up their wet towels, charge their phones, finish their math assignment, feed the cat, scrape up the mystery sticky stuff of the table or pick up their socks...from the middle of the backyard. The days when you can't find anything because there is just so much crap, everywhere. The laundry, the dishes, the unopened mail, the schoolwork, the ......just...everything....everything is behind, everything is in need of cleaning, feeding, or some sort of repair. And you have no idea where to start. Not a clue. It's two hours past bedtime and you have no strength left for the the fight. You just want to sink to the floor of a dark closet and cry into your bowl of ice cream. The ice cream you keep on hand for this very purpose, the ice cream that you hide in the back corner of the freezer, hidden inside some nondescript Tupperware. All you ever want is to just get slightly ahead. To be in the anticipatory stage instead of the reactionary. To be ahead - for just once. Just once.
This movie may have hit a nerve for some, but for those of us who are SAHMs - and we come in all sorts of varieties - this movie was a first in calling attention to our fears and needs, and elevating the role we play. We are important and we matter. Sure, we arrived at this station via different routes - some by choice and some not so much - but we are here, so let's support one another. Our job is not for the faint of heart.
I want to say a heartfelt thank you to the creative (homeschooled!) minds who put this movie and its message together...it was the laugh, the cry, the pat on the back that I needed.
