Protected: A work in progress, week 5

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Funky blue

I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately.  I’ve just not been able to get into a productive routine.  But today has been pretty good.  I’m staying up until 11 to make it happen, but it feels good to do things like…run, do laundry, run the dishwasher and shave my hairy legs! 

I found the coolest laundry tip ever online about a week ago, and had a chance to put it into practice tonight.  If you let clothes get stale in the washer or dryer, run them through the washer again with a cup of vinegar.  I didn’t think it would really work, but it totally did.  And they didn’t smell like vinegar.  They just smelled fresh and clean!  It was super!  I’m going to try running my stinky running clothes through and see if vinegar can work odor removing magic on them. 

We had such a wimpy date today.  William didn’t seem to mind too much, but still.  I mind.  We just watched Shrek.  We didn’t even bother to rent it, just watched it on the Replay.  Wimpy wimpy wimpy.  But I’m not going to let it get me down today.  After all, my hair is, as we speak, freshly shampooed and I ran 5 miles today!!  With intervals!!  Nothing’s getting me down on this day.

Although, I might be slightly down if I turn on So You Think You Can Dance here in a bit and find out Pasha got sent home.  Or any guy other than Cedric.  I’m not as invested in any one girl yet.  I pretty much like them all.  No one I know watches this show.  It’s very lonely.  I have no one to talk to about it.  But I think it’s way better than American Idol. 

Oops.  Time to switch the laundry over.  Don’t want to have to use any more vinegar.

Protected: A work in progress, week 4

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Thursday date day

Kind of weenie date today unfortunately.  Just running errands basically–library, movie store, grocery store.  I had a grand plan that involved the zoo and the water park, but the thunderstorms literally rained on my parade.  Ok, I guess it’s not literally unless I had planned a parade.  But, there was rain.  And thunder.  And a change of plans.  But I think we had fun anyway.  And you got to buy toys at the grocery store, so that’s noteworthy all on it’s own.  And we got a couple games. 

I think that to you it’s not really as important what we do as it is to know that I have set aside one day a week to do something with you. I wish my life wasn’t so crazy. I wish I didn’t feel like a plate spinner most days because there is nothing I want to do more than spend time with you and nothing I want to be more than your mom.

You’re a great date.

A milestone

I was so proud of you today for sticking with the shoe-tying practice and then piano practice.  I know that you get frustrated when things don’t come easily to you.  What you don’t realize is that so much comes easily to you that doesn’t come easily to others.  You are truly amazing.  I just wish I was better at being patient with you.  I know you can do so much.  I know you have pretty much limitless potential.  Why are you self-conscious, I wonder?  Did I do that to you? 

I want to tell you, now and forever, do not be afraid.  Do not be embarrassed.  Do not doubt yourself.  Most people’s parents tell them they can do anything they want if they just work hard enough.  Some of those parents are doing their kids a disservice and they end up on the excruciating audition portions of tv talent shows.  I can honestly say I have never yet encountered the thing that you cannot do without work and patience on your part.  Your talents are many.  I just wish you had a better mom and a dad to help you cultivate your talents and your confidence.  I wish I knew better how to walk the line between pushing you to excel and making you feel inadequate.  That big snaggle-tooth grin when those bows stayed where they were supposed to this morning, your brow furrowed in concentration as you listened to the metronome and counted out loud and clapped–these are some of my favorite moments with you.  Watching you work and reap the rewards of a challenge overcome.

 Do not be afraid.  Do not be embarrassed.  Do not doubt yourself.  You can do it and I love you.

Bye bye obnoxiously loose tooth.

The Beach

William and I had the blessing of being able to spend a week, well, not a full week, as William pointed out several times, but Monday through Friday at the beach with the M’s and the S’s.  Much fun was had by all.  I guess I shouldn’t speak for everyone else.  But William and I really enjoyed ourselves.  I’m behind on blogging the exercise stuff because the internet down there was kind of sketchy sometimes and didn’t appreciate my trying to mess around with gmaps. 

We drove down on Monday, which was an adventure. I ended up taking us at least an hour out of our way because of ignorance. This was bad because we already got a late start, and of course an extra hour in an un-airconditioned vehicle is never a good thing. But once we got to the beach house, it was amazing how much the temperature seemed to drop.

The house was right on the beach. It was so nice. And it wasn’t like a tourist hot spot or anything, so there were no crowds. The S’s arrived just as we did. So we all got settled in. I don’t remember if we went right down to the beach. I am pretty sure that the kids got in the hot tub pretty close to right away. The water was really shallow a long way out, but when you got out a ways, the current got pretty strong. The waves were not very big at all, so all those boogie boards that were brought weren’t really that useful, unfortunately.

There were sand castles built, and William got to sample a lot of different ocean life. We saw three different kinds of crabs, he rescued a dead eel from the birds and Charles found a shark tail. Unfortunately, there were also jelly fish. IM and MM got stung. I felt so bad for little I. He was obviously in pain. MM, for whatever reason, was not as crying as much, but she got stung pretty badly as well. And then on our last day there we actually saw two jellyfish. Shirsh and I were heading out. We had ambitions to go way way out where the waves were breaking, and then we saw the jellyfish and chickened out. Then we spread the chickeness to everyone else within communicating distance. There was a mass exodus from the water. But pretty soon thereafter, everyone else got brave again, and so did we. We didn’t make it out as far as we meant to though because it started to get deep. By deep I mean shoulder-high. But at that depth it was really hard to make any headway against the current. So we still didn’t make it to the breaking waves.

I kept joking that I wanted to swim to the oil rigs or South America or something, but no one took me up on it. I did do some actual swimming though, and the current made that really really difficult. I totally was not gaining any ground at all. William’s goggles got swept off his head. I wonder if they’ll make it to South America. Or Europe. Or just the bottom of the ocean. Or some animal’s stomach. But probably just back up on the beach.

I wish I had more anecdotes of William to tell from the beach, but I spent more time with Shirsh and William spent more time with all of the other littles. I regret that now. He did have a blast. He loved the waves. And he enjoyed just floating around on the boogie boards. The littles actually had better luck with the boogie boarding because they could go in the shallow water without grounding.

The S’s had to leave Thursday afternoon. The rest of us left Friday morning. Thankfully I took the shorter way on the way back.
It was a lot of fun, and I got some pictures. But I wish I’d blogged about it down there. Isn’t that the whole point of this journal? To record the memories while they’re fresh? It’s pathetic because it was only last week and the details of the trip are already fading. Good thing I took some pics. Oooo, and memorable video of Charles doing karaoke. He’s nothing if not energetic.

Protected: Day 1

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Protected: A work in progress, week 2

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Friday date day

Since our usual Friday night dinner party had one sick party today (so sad), William and I branched out and used my Mothers’ Day Outback gift card.  We ordered at least twice as much food as we could eat, including two cheesecakes, so we’ll be re-enacting tonight’s date tomorrow sometime.

After dinner we still had some time before sunset, and there was an Academy conveniently placed between Outback and home, so I stopped in and went crazy buying running clothes. I already regret the trip. I haven’t spent that much money on clothes in over two years, and then some of it was too small. Too small for now, anyway. But hey. I am a serious runner these days, or at least aspiring to be. And there were two days this week when I would have run if I had had appropriate clothing. So begone days of having only one set of exercise clothing! Can you believe I’m actually looking forward to my 7-miler on Sunday! I’m going to be all clima-cooled and compression-shorted and everything. So it was an expense, but getting in shape is vital to my health these days.

I need to quit soda already. Or pop. Or whatever you want to call it. I’ve been drinking too much again. Although today, I only drank half of one. But that’s because I took a nap. Oh wait, I had 3 refills at dinner. Oops. I’m trying to be all driven and strong-willed like Shirsh, but it’s not working. If I stay up until 11 pm trying to work, and then try to get up at 4:30 am so I can do stuff before William wakes up, come 10:30 I’m soooo ready for a nappy-nappy. But I don’t do the power nap. I do the marathon nap. I feel like death warmed over, but only slightly warmed, if I nap for less than 2 hours. I usually, it ends up being somewhere around 3 hours. Today, I escaped with only 1 hour and avoided the dreaded hit-by-large-truck feeling only because I was awakened by William crashing and banging, sending a huge jolt of adrenaline coursing through by body. All drowsiness was banished. Maybe I should just arrange for him to fall off the toybox every time I take a nap.

We actually did homeschool today. I love homeschool. But I’m sooo bad about getting all zealous and motivated just before a trip. Next week at the beach will be no doubt kill all momentum. I could take some stuff, but there will be so many kids there not doing anything, and I’ll end up not doing anything either. Well, maybe I could take his handwriting and some math. Two workbooks. Maybe thirty minutes each day. I should do that. Every little bit helps.

I’m just about ready to order this years standardized test for him, but I have to wait for a couple more paychecks now that I’m outfitted in running clothes for the rest of my life. I’m not really too worried about where he is, since he tested so far ahead of grade level last year, but I want to make sure that his test taking skills continue to improve. Here’s a shot of the dedicated pupil, hard at work.