Little Things

June 28, 2012 · Leave a comment ·

Last week was back to back insanity, just flat out nuts with a side order of completely off the deep end. It was like being at the beach at high tide in a hurricane. The waves were big and they just kept coming and coming. During those times, it is the little things that are life preservers helping you ride out the REALLY big waves. So, I bring you last week’s little things.

The Scarf – Wednesday night was by far the hottest and most humid day of the summer. It was also Cub Scout Family Fun night, the annual end-of-year celebration and recruitment night for the local Cub Scout Pack. While there I was gifted with a beautiful, hand made, scarf as recognition for work I did to raise funds to purchase t-shirts for the boys. We raised double the amount we needed, but that had more to do with the awesome generosity of the businesses in our town than it did with the letter I wrote. Still, I got teary. It was especially meaningful because the woman who made it for me is more involved than I am in local activities. She’s flat out too and she’s making a scarf for me!

Valet Parking – On Friday, I drove to Boston to take my mom to the hospital for a medical procedure. This promised to be a stressful day from start to finish. We were late arriving (not my fault). We opted to use the valet parking service to expedite thing but realized we forgot to grab my mom’s handicapped parking placard. When we pulled up, we were immediately assisted by 2 valet parking attendants and a greeter. When one of the attendants saw my mom’s wheelchair, he took back the regular valet parking ticket and gave me the discounted handicapped parking ticket even though we didn’t have the placard. As I got on the elevator to take my mom upstairs, I realized I was still clutching the man’s tip in my hands. Argh!! Eight hours later, post procedure my mom was resting relatively comfortably, and I facing an hour an a half drive. It was time to search for my car. Valet parking was closed and I was directed to the parking garage across the street. I had visions of wandering the 12 floors with my key fob clicking the panic button looking for my car. But no, the kind valet parking attendant who didn’t get a tip, left my car right by the door.

Knowledge Sponge – When all was said and done, I grabbed some down time with my husband and daughter on Sunday afternoon. After some fun, we ended up visiting family, which resulted in an impromptu barbecue. Towards the end of the night I went in search of my daughter and found her inside watching Fox News. I pointed out that she could probably find The Disney Channel, but she said “No, this is interesting.” Closer investigation revealed she was watching “Millennials Speak Out”, a show where 20 somethings shared their concerns with former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Man I love this kid.

Cub Scout Camp

June 26, 2012 · 2 Comments ·

Mim is off to his first Cub Scout Camp adventure this week. It five nights and four days of non-stop action. He was mostly excited, but I think a small part of him was nervous too. In other words, he was a typical little boy.

He’s there with his pack, so he knows the leaders and the other boys he’s camping with. I have no doubt, that both he AND the leaders will come back with some wacky tales to be told.

It rained like Noah was about to show up yesterday and a I cringed, and prayed that my not-so-detailed-oriented little boy remembered to put the top back on his rubbermaid bucket and close his tent flaps. Alas, I guess that what’s overnight camp is all about, experiential learning. 🙂

Eight

June 23, 2012 · Leave a comment ·

Dear Mim,

Today we celebrate your 8th birthday with your friends. On the day you actually turned eight (three weeks ago), we started off the day at karate where with cupcakes for you and Mr. H. Jr. Pretty cool that your sensei’s birthday is the same day as yours!! Later that day you chose the 99 Restaurant for your birthday dinner. This time of year is always crazy busy as we wrap up school and scouts. I didn’t get a chance to write a post for you on your birthday. That doesn’t mean your birthday isn’t one of the most important days of the year to me. Although the delay wasn’t intentional, I was secretly pleased when you asked if I was going to write a blog post for you.

Seven was a good year for you. You worked hard at karate, participating in a tournament and moving up 5 belt ranks. As we close out your first year, Mr. H. has decided you may be ready to move up to the Dragon Warrior level. He has challenged you to control your body and focus during classes and you have been making an good effort to meet that challenge.

Second grade was a good year for you. Mrs. C was supportive and we identified some issues around focus an attention that are impacting your writing and we have taken steps to address some of the challenges. You’ve grown socially too. Mrs. P. commented on how much your playground behavior has improved.

You had a great year with Boy Scouts. You completed all the requirements for the Wolves and have moved on to being a Bear. Your smile and energy was a huge asset while selling popcorn. You worked with Dad and created a Pinewood Derby car you could be proud of and soon you’ll be going to overnight camp with your pack!

This year you tested your wings a little. Mom and Dad were gone for a week celebrating their anniversary and you stay at home with Grammy & Grandpa and then five months later, you spent a week in Florida with Grammy and Grandpa. The story goes that you literally fell asleep in your dinner one night, but you most definitely had a great time and were on your best behavior.

Lightening McQueen is still a favorite, but all things sports (especially football) have held your attention as well. The Patriots made the SuperBowl we even stayed up to watch the first half (too bad they lost). If I can’t find you, I look for the iPad. If I can’t find the iPad, I know you are off in a corner reading. This happens frequently.

You are still a morning person. Some mornings, you wake up a little earlier and come down to snuggle with me on the couch. You read while I journal and then we get into the morning routine. You weren’t much of a snuggler as a baby, but you’ve come to it later in life and I LOVE it.

You are full of energy, exuberance and questions. You’ve made great strides socially. You are starting to understand that there are times when focus and sitting still are important. Those are not easy tasks for you, but you are rising to the challenge and making an effort.

I have a feeling 8 is going to be big year for you. I can’t wait to see what’s in store.

Happy Birthday!

Love,

Mommy

A Low Vision Moment

June 20, 2012 · 1 Comment ·

Vertical photo of my perspective as I was walking down the sidewalk of the strip mall — Next time I was there, I took a picture, but of course the offending balloon was gone.

I do not see as well as most of the population. I am extremely light sensitive which has lead me to walk in to more than a few stationary objects as I’m blinded by the sun. I say “Excuse me.” only to realize I apologized to a parking meter or a trash can. I also have no depth perception. Most of the time, I do a pretty good job of faking it, but every once in a while, I have a coping mechanism failure of epic proportions. This is the story of one those moments.

Recently husband and I were having lunch at a local restaurant, nothing fancy, just the breakfast/sandwich joint in the only strip mall in town. This strip mall is home to a hair salon, a candy store, a gift shop, a contract postal station and the pizza place (small town living people). After we placed our order, I headed down the sidewalk to the post office. I could see the candy story had an a-frame sign out and beyond it, a woman was striding towards me carrying a yellow mylar balloon with a smiley face on it I could only see the balloon, no face. Being my chipper self, I said “My aren’t you smiley today”. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized she was NOT in fact carrying the balloon, it was attached to the a-frame and the wind was blowing in such away that it blocked her face.

With an annoyed smile on her face. She said, “Don’t even get me started.” in a way that let me know she wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t annoyed with me either. As she entered the hair salon, I tried to explain, but my words were a jumbled mess and she was on a mission.

Oops!

Ah, life with low vision.

Summer Vacation Sangria

June 18, 2012 · 1 Comment ·

'Sangria' photo (c) 2010, TheCulinaryGeek - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ — This is a photo of generic Sangria. We drank all of the Summer Vacation Sangria before I could snap a photo

Last Friday was the first Friday of summer vacation. WHOO FREAKIN’ HOOOO! Summer vacation, no more crazy schedules, no more needing to be three places at once, no more homework.

Summer vacation, lots and lots and lots and LOTS of unstructured time. Wheeew Boy! Yep, Summer vacation (are ya gettin’ the mixed vibe?).

In honor of summer vacation, I whipped up a batch of Sangria for FNA. Most Friday nights, my neighbors host a gathering known as FNA – Friday Night Awesome. Someday I will try to blog about the awesomeness that is FNA, but for today, I’m going to blog about Sangria. This sangria, was, well, awesome. *AHEM* Maybe a little too awesome, but that’s my fault, not the sangria’s. There may have been a Facebook post or two about the almighty sangria, so to all those who asked for the recipe, here it is.

Summer Vacation Sangria

Note: This is the party version. If you aren’t serving a crowd, you can half the recipe.

2 lemon

2 lime

2 orange

1 1/2 cups rum (I used Captain Morgan’s Tattoo, Dark Spiced Rum)

1 1/2 cups blackberry Brandy

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 (750 milliliter) bottle red wine (I used BareFoot Sweet Red)

2 cups orange juice

Cut the fruit in to thin slices and place it to a 64oz. container

Add everything to the container except the brown sugar and mix.

Pour 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of the liquid into a microwave safe measuring cup, add the brown sugar and stir. Warm briefly in the microwave to fully dissolve the sugar (I used my beverage reheat setting).

Add the sugared liquid back to the container and mix.

Chill for at least four hours.

It’s a powerful little brew. I brought ginger ale for those who might want to thin it some. I should have taken my own advice. The third glass did me in, but it sure did taste good!

For me personally, the mixture of wine and hard liquor isn’t always a positive thing. Next time, I think I’ll try substituting unsweetened grape juice for the wine and call it rum punch 🙂

However you enjoy it, I strongly recommend moderation but a designated driver is a non-negotiable requirement. Never drink and drive. Don’t mean to get preachy, but please be careful out there.

Happy Summer Vacation!

The End is Near

June 13, 2012 · Leave a comment ·

It’s that time of year, the end.

No, not The End, like the end of this post. The end as in the end of school, the end of Boy Scouts, and the end of Girl Scouts. At times, it feels like the friggin’ END OF THE WORLD!!

I’ve been doing this school thing for more than 10 years now, 6 years with two kids. You would think that by now, I would remember that the last two weeks of school are just INSANE. It doesn’t matter if it is pre-school or junior high, life is just nuts. I can’t put it on a calendar six months in advance because six months ago, we were still contemplating snow days and the end of the year was a moving target. So, it sneaks up on me EVERY FLIPPIN’ YEAR.

There are assessments and meetings, final projects, year end celebrations, and field trips. Don’t forget class parties, Scout events and teacher gifts. At a micro level, I appreciate these things as they mark the passing of time. At a macro level? I just want to scream ENOUGH at the top of my longs.

For our family it is further complicated by a cluster of birthdays. Do you now how hard it is to schedule a little boy’s birthday party in early June? I’m not the only one who’s calendar is suffering from overload. Eventually you hammer a stake in the ground and say “Those who can come, will and those who can’t won’t” but it is hard as you hope and pray that SOMEONE will come.

As fast as it winds up, it screeches to a halt. Tomorrow is the last day of school for my kids. I estimate the first “I’m bored” will arrive at 10:26am Friday morning as I scramble to meet a deadline for our local paper.

We have a few scheduled weeks and a lot of down time this summer. Karate is the only constant through the summer. Come the fall, all the other activities will kick in again. I’ll bet you come next June I’ll be just as crazed as I am now. In the immortal words of Harry Chapin “All my life’s a circle, sunrise and sunset.”

New Home

June 4, 2012 · Leave a comment ·

On Saturday morning I went down with fresh water for the chicks and was greeted by one of the barred rocks sitting on the lip of the plastic tub the chicks were calling home. She (oh how I hope they are all Shes) just sat there and looked at me like “yeah, and” until I got close enough then she flew, FLEW down into the bucket. It was time to relocate the birds to larger living quarters.

Ladies and gentle fowl, I give you Casa De Perro, Chez Canine, or Chickens in a Dog Crate.

Along with more space and a full containment field, the new digs also offer a roosting pole. I *think* they’ll be able to stay here until we transfer them to their permanent home in a month or so until they are fully feathered and can maintain their body temperature.

Who Will Save The Sing Off?

May 31, 2012 · 2 Comments ·

Dear NBC,

When you cancelled The Sing Off, you cancelled one of the best reality shows on TV. Certainly one of the best shows on your network.

I did my part. I watched faithfully all three seasons. I shouted from the treetops about how awesome the show was. Between the kids and I we purchased no less than thirty of the tracks available on iTunes and grumped about the ones not made available (Nicole Sherzinger and Jerry Lawson’s duet from Season two). I liked my favorite groups on Facebook and followed them on Twitter. I JUMPED at the chance to see season three groups perform live. What more could I have done to show you I cared?

Right on the heels on the cancellation announcement, you announced the acquisition of a new singing show from the producer of The Voice. Meh, who cares. It wasn’t the competition that compelled me to watch. It was the talent and the reasonable panel of judges. I have enough stress and drama in my day to day life. I don’t need it in my entertainment. The Sing Off was a show I could sit down and enjoy with my kids. Shows like that are few and far between these days.

My first reaction to the news was shock, followed quickly by anger. I signed the petition in support of bringing the show back, but with the announcement of the replacement, I knew it was a done deal. So to NBC I say ~@#$%!!!!

Sincerely,

Lee Laughlin

So, *dusts off hands* now that NBC has released The Sing Off, who is going to pick it up? C’mon, this isn’t unheard of, there are shows that have struggled on the broadcast networks who have thrived in the land of cable. What about MTV? You know MUSIC Television? Maybe CMT? How about USA Network? TNT?

SOMEONE PLEASE AIR THIS SHOW.

Mama needs her a cappella fix.

They’re HERE!!!

May 30, 2012 · 1 Comment ·

We picked up the chicks on Friday!

They were really cute balls of fluff. I say were because they are growing like mad and are beginning to enter that awkward teenager stage. They are eating/drinking/pooping machines! But they are super cute.

This is a cooperative project between four families. Almost everyone has met our feathered friends and some have even been initiated (ahem pooped on). I think the award for most excited for their arrival goes to Becky. We’re pretty sure that K, (Becky’s youngest girl) has handled each of the 24 chicks at LEAST once :). It is cute to watch the kids take to them. We are carefully handling them so that they will become very used to humans. Before you ask, we instituted strict hand washing policies!

Fish is super excited and has requested that caring for the chickens become a permanent chore of hers. Mim hasn’t shown a ton of interest, but he’s held a few chicks and that’s good enough for me. A-man keeps asking them when he’ll get some eggs.

Last weekend we went away for one overnight and Becky and her husband stepped up to care for them. It really is pretty straightforward but they do require regular attention, so the only way this would work for us is if it is a group effort. We’re lucky to have such awesome neighbors!

This will not become exclusively a chicken blog, but watch for more chicken posts in the near future.