Thursday, January 30, 2014

A Light Dusting–(This post was written in part in 2013 and in part today and yesterday)

THIS IS A SCATTERED POST!

That is all it really takes to cancel school around here.  I have been begging for the day to come when we had a break from school and I made it down to the last day… that is until they canceled school.  Doesn’t the school district realize that for the first time in my life we had teacher gifts ready to go to school today?  Homemade teacher gifts of lip balm and vanilla, complete with handmade cards by the kids that will now sit in little bags until January 6th.  I also wish the district would know how excited I was that we completed optional homework and it was packed up and ready to go in Owen’s backpack.  It was packed up the night before, this is big news around here.  We made it to the last day before winter break and we were ahead of the game… and now we are home.  I am cursing this day enough now and rest assured, when the end of June comes and we add that extra make-up day, I will curse it more. 

So what now? Well, I can’t be awake at 6:00 for nothing, so my blog at least deserved a post, especially considering I only have 11 days to remember 2013 as something other than the worst blogging year of my life.  I find with each child I have less room in my head to remember anything.  As new tasks and memories enter my head, old ones leave.  It is sort of like my head is full and something has to leave to make room for something else.  So thank you snow day for making me write stuff down…

Things worth remembering:

* Autumn loves eating “ficken” and “feese” and I adore making her say both.  Chicken and cheese sound so much better when they start with an f.

* Some words are cute when they start with an f, other words are a tad more dangerous.  For example: Chocolate Milk.  Out of Autumn’s mouth, it sounds a little like – fockit milk.  And yes, if you say that out loud, it sounds like you think it might.

* Owen made me mad this week last week and I lost all ability to parent nicely.  He was mean to me and wouldn’t practice piano.  He told me it was too hard and that we give up when things are hard.  It was late, I was tired. I transferred $60.00 out of his account into mine to pay for his lesson.  Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

* Ivy is so competitive and loves to be perfect.  Evan did soccer this summer and after watching his first game, Ivy announced “You did good Evan, but you didn’t score any goals”.  And then there was the time Lyla couldn’t wait to tell Ivy that she learned how to buckle herself in her car seat.  Ivy looked at her and said very seriously, “Good Lyla, but can you unbuckle yourself?”.  She has good intentions, she just has has a heart of gold with high expectations.  Her poor little cousins.  She is taking gymnastics, swimming, piano, dance, and can’t wait for T-ball. 

* Greg is probably started a new job in Seattle.  I was very scared about the commute, but it is turning out ok.  He has to leave about an hour earlier than he used to and he rides the bus, which he says he actually doesn’t mind.  His work will reimburse him for the bus pass each month, which makes the commute almost free.  Greg seems happy at the new job and I am pleased to say we are settling in to the changes. 

* It is time to dust off the yoga mat…. teaching yoga starts started again on January 4th.  I cannot lie, it has been harder than I thought.  Having your own life with kids is not the easiest of tasks.  In fact, after we started teaching, Ivy moved to a two day a week gymnastics class that ends at the same time yoga starts.  Greg started working in Seattle instead of down the street.  We signed up Evan, Ivy, and Owen for T-ball and baseball and I signed up Greg to coach both of my kids’ teams and truth be told,  we have no idea how that will work! Everyday is a work in progress and thought. 

* Autumn needs a stylist.  Her clothes are awful and most days they are jammies.  The night before last she picked out yellow pajama pants with frogs on it, pink work out type shorts over the top, a blue shirt with a monkey on it, topped with a little pink hooded vest.  She wore that to bed, for her clothes yesterday, and last night.  We are hoping she gets dressed today, but really, that is up to her.  I don’t force the issue, I have places to go and trust me, we would not go if I intervened with her dressing plans. 

* Every single pair of Ivy’s pants has a hole in the knee, even the same knee. 

* Ivy and I got our hair trimmed the other day (Autumn invited herself in for a haircut as well and I am pretty sure she cut nothing off…it is hard to cut nothing off nothing) and Ivy is obsessed with it. 

* The kids are all still sleeping in my bed. (Owen comes and goes…comes when I let him, goes when he is in trouble)

* The kids love to “hip hip hooray” for things.  For example, “Mom, I earned a Frog Pride at school, we should give me 5 hip hip hoorays”.  And then we do that.  Autumn is my favorite…”Mom, my coughs are gone, let’s hip hip hooray for me”.  And then she throws her arms in the air, jumps up and down and cheers, hip hip hooray. 

* Owen wanted one thing more for Christmas than anything else…a suit.  My dad gave him a three piece suit complete with a pocket watch. 

* And finally, the kids went to the dentist the other day and had no cavities.  In fact, the older two have places we were watching and then dentist said the trouble spots were gone.  I almost died a little. 

And for the sake of finally posting.. the end. 

Monday, January 13, 2014

Long overdue pictures (and not enough)

Tea Party

Crazy Hair Day!

New Year's Eve!

A group of babies asleep on the stairs

Mystery phone selfies

George

Autumn loves watching Peppa Pig. They have Mommy Pig, Daddy Pig, Peppa, and George. 

The other night in bed, lying in the dark, Autumn said: "you are Mommy Pig, ok? and I am Vorv, and you can actually call me Vorv". 

"Ok, that is fine but you have to go to sleep Auttie."

"Call me Vorv."

"George, please go to sleep."

"Ok Mommy Pig."

"Do you need your blanket George?"

And in the dark of the night, I continued to be required to commit 100% to calling her George. 

George finally fell asleep, but continues to be George at least two or three times a day. 

Thursday, January 9, 2014

A new year

Here we are, 2014. 

I entered the new year wondering if I should set any yearly goals and then quickly decided against it and here is why: I have to have a certain number of CLE hours to keep practicing law, 45 hours every three years to be exact. On December 27 I realized that my hours were due this year by December 31st and after further investigation, it became clear that I needed 31 hours of CLE in 5 days. Those 5 days were beyond sucky. 

So what does this have to do with a 2014 goal? Well, I envisioned myself cramming for my goals similarly to the mass watching of online CLE hours. I realized if I committed to running 4 5k races, I would be setting up a line and a cheering squad for myself outside my house. I would be handing out to myself a t-shirt that I made and pinning my homemade bib on. And not only would I do this, but I would do it 4 times- on December 31st. 

Or perhaps if I set a goal to learn 5 sentences in Spanish, I would be bunkered down with my Rosetta Stone and my headphones while the rest of the world gleefully screamed and shouted, Happy New Year!! 

I know myself. Year goals are not for me. I need something a little more attainable. I think I do better with monthly goals ( so what if I do those on the last day of the month all year). 

As of now, I plan to run a 5k per month (I dread that goal already, I mean, have you ever peed while you run? It is less than awesome and may be enough to cause me to abandon my goal. We shall see how things go early on). 

I plan to do another round of monthly adventures. 

I also plan to make sure I do at least 2 personal training sessions per month. 

If all goes well in January, I may even add something to that list.  I need to see if I can be trusted with these goals first. 

I may have to run to my personal training session on the last day of the month. 

Here's to a great year, procrastination and all!!!