Indigo Girl

Vacation

Our school had vacation this week, so A and I took time off from work and we took the kids to an indoor waterpark. It's our fourth consecutive year, so we get the big room, late checkout, and a courtesy box of goodies. E and L have been old enough for the past two years that we've let them play on their own with regular check-ins. It was all fine - A even caught E being kind to a little kid when she didn't know he was watching her - until the end. We did the normal thing of finding everyone and telling them that we were going to leave in the next thirty minutes. C was tired and wanted to curl up on my lap. L headed for the hot tub. And then we spent the next twenty minutes - increasing in franticness - looking for E. 

It's not a huge facility and between the two of us, we searched each area at least a half dozen times in that twenty minutes. Finally, after he had climbed to the top of the slides and the fort, I said, "We need help." You guys. That's scary. I knew she hadn't drowned because those life guards are like caged panthers pacing back and forth constantly. I also knew that the most likely scenario was that we had missed her somehow, but with both of us looking for twenty minutes, I was - deep down - scared she had been taken. I KNOW that statistics are not in favor of kidnapping - it rarely happens - but where else could she be?

I reported her missing. The lifeguard took her description (I HAD TO DESCRIBE MY CHILD. BECAUSE SHE WAS MISSING) and sent people out to look for her. In the meantime, I eyed the doors and asked if he was going to stop people from leaving until she was found. He said, apologetically, that they only do that if they call a Code Pink and then management has to get involved and everyone searches. I had a moment - just a moment - of thinking, "Oh, I don't want to be any trouble" and then I thought, "What if she HAS been abducted and I hold back a search out of POLITENESS? How could I ever forgive myself?" The answer was: I couldn't. So I said, "Yes. That's exactly what I'm looking for. Please do that." And he did.

We found her within ten minutes. She was floating in the lazy river, happy as a clam. It was too bad, really, because then I squeezed her to death and smothered her with kisses. Seems a waste, doesn't it? It was over an hour before my adrenaline subsided and I still get nauseous when I think about parents who go through that for a much longer period of time and with a different outcome. I am proud of myself for advocating for a Code Pink even though it turned out to be unnecessary. I would make the same decision again.

The rest of our stay was much less dramatic. They had air quality issues on our second morning (a outdoor vent had been blocked with snow) and gave away buckets of free tokens in the arcade until it was fixed. Our children played games for hours (free!) and won more than 2000 tickets. They pooled their tickets and now we're the "proud" owners of an LED light that says "Peace."

E and L spent a lot of time with groups of other kids. It makes me happysad to see. C still wanted to hang out with us and E and L would return occasionally to ask us to watch them on the lily pads or ride a double tube down the slide with them, but they were much more interested in making friends.

Earlier this week, my FIL emailed to see if we wanted to send the girls to their house for a sleepover and you bet we did. I dropped them off yesterday so A and I could go out to dinner (hampered for a short period by a flat tire that A manfully changed in the cold and snow) and see Django Unchanged. This morning he ran a 5K and then we saw Lincoln and went out for sushi. I've only had sushi one other time, but this was a place recommended by a coworker. I loved it. I don't love the texture of raw fish, so I stuck to cooked stuff - shrimp and cucumber roll, a roll with crab salad and something crunchy - and a glass of sake.

Bananas and (Non) Creepy "Dates"

A bought two bunches of bananas at exactly the same level of green-yellowness, so they were all perfect to eat at the same time and only 3/5ths of us eat bananas. C, E, and I made a valiant effort, but I had three too brown ones and made a breakfast cookie someone posted on Fbook:

2 smashed up bananas, 1 cup of quick oats, and a handful of chocolate chips and/or nuts. Form into 16 cookies and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

I don't know HOW she got 16 cookies, but whatever. They are not bad fresh out of the oven. I'll see how they are in the morning.

I stopped my food diary for a week and then came back to it. I don't think I'll continue more than another month or so - logging on My Fitness Pal is going well and I'm still losing weight - but I'll do it for a while yet. I've been doing a better job with portion size when I pause before eating my meal and really look at the food instead of just shoveling it in. I used to be planning how to get seconds before even finishing firsts. Now I do a kind of cheesy visualization of the food in my stomach and how that is enough to fill me up. It helps.

I had an epiphany the other day that I wrote about on my food diary. Basically, I was unable to resist the Costco cake in the break room, but instead of feeling guilty about it, I enjoyed the hell out of it and then went back to eating mindfully. I didn't figure "Oh, today is worthless now. I may as well eat this whole gallon of ice cream!" This is a huge step forward for me, because, frankly, I don't want to live in a cake-less world and I have to fight that all-or-nothing mentality.

 We went to a school Valentine's Dance last night. E and L are on the cusp of ditching us for their friends - next year for sure. This year they still wanted to dance with us and be near. There were enough parents willing to cut a rug that it was good, clean fun.

Today I ran six miles and then L and I went out for lunch. A and I have been talking about doing regular one-on-one things with the kids now that we have less tag team parenting, but it wasn't until Moxie and I were arguing about using the word "date" in this situation that I finally decided to do it.

(For the record, I think date can be a nonromantic time - like a movie date with a friend or a lunch date with my daughter - and she thinks it's weird/creepy to use the word date when it's not romantic and insinuated that it's incestuous to use it re: parent-child time. We decided we have a different connotation of the word date. If I said, "I had a lunch date with L today!" it would be no different to me than if I said, "I went out to lunch with L today!" or "I hung out with L today! We got lunch together." Usually I am on the side of creepy/inappropriate, so it's odd to be on the other side.)

 Anyway, L and I discussed how weird it is that urinals aren't in stalls and played a zillion games of tic tac toe while waiting for our food. Then we wandered around a craft/fabric store and finished by getting frozen yogurt. 

Cold Weather Hurdler

I ran 5.5 miles yesterday morning. It was cold (10 degrees) and not everyone had shoveled their sidewalk. I sometimes ran in the street, sometimes pretended that I was running over sand or through mud, and always was an Olympic hurdler when leaping over snowbanks. Usually when I run that far without having run recently, I get shin splints, but I only have sore butt muscles today. I consider that a win. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. It was slow and I had to be careful not to slip, but it was a great run.

After knitting the ruffle scarf for L, I knit the same yarn differently and made a shawl for C's doll. You're supposed to use two skeins to make a person-sized thick scarf, but I didn't have any more and I think it fits the doll well.  I started a easy bag that required me to cast off and on in the middle of a row. I messed up the first time, so I did it a couple times with my practice yarn and then started my project again. Here's what I have so far: 

I'm excited because it actually LOOKS like half of a bag. I think the hard part will be lining it and sewing it up evenly. There are also instructions to knit a little flower for decoration.

After lunch, we drove to a suburb for an ice festival. It was kind of lame, but we met friends there, so that part was fun. We were waiting to watch the crazy people jump into the icy water, but the children were distracted by throwing chunks of snow into the water flowing from the dam. If you ask them, this was probably the highlight.

A couple toddlers wandered over, wanting to be like the big kids, and my kids were so sweet with them - they gave them little chunks of ice and showed them how to toss them into the water.

We left the festival to go to an awesome sledding hill on that side of town. It has a really tall, steep, fast hill on one side and then a double hill on the other. L went over a big bump the first time down (I was in front of her and heard a group of people gasp when she hit) and injured her back. She spent the rest of the time crying, first because of pain and then because of disappointment. When we got home, I have her some ibuprofen and she soaked in the tub for awhile. She emerged in a much better state of mind.

A left to run some errands and brought home delicious burgers from the hole-in-the-wall deli around the corner. After we put the kids to bed, we watched Rachel Getting Married and I started knitting my bag. 

Another Scarf

I was switching around the kids' allowances* last week when I realized that C had saved quite a lot of money. I asked what she was saving for and she said, "A Webkinz! And a princess!" She looked through a bunch of each and decided on a dragon and a bridal Rapunzel. She has yet to express buyer's remorse, so I think we're good.

*When we start running out of $1s and quarters, I take my own cash and exchange $5s and $10s for their $1s. It saves A going to the bank and getting the hairy eyeball for getting a bunch of $1s. "Going to a STRIP CLUB tonight, sir?"

In less than 24 hours, I finished this ruffled scarf for L. I officially love sashay yarn. I bought it impulsively because I liked the colors and it was on major markdown. I figured I'd google patterns and figure out what to use it for later. Now I have to buy more and make one for C and one for E, too. They're going to be the ruffled scarf sisters, I guess.

(It annoys/scares me that L looked at the picture of herself and bemoaned her "tired eyes." She has hooded eyes like A does and even though I've shown her pictures of beautiful women with hooded eyes, she persists with this negative self-image. I remember thinking that I was fat in high school [at 5'10" and 130 lbs] and my mom protesting, "You have a beautiful body," and I totally dismissed her. I'm not sure how much influence I have here.)

Today the stars aligned and we had a snow day on a day I wasn't working! On my days off, I like to sleep in until 6, but I woke up to the school's phone call at 5:30. We spent the morning lying around in our pajamas, me knitting and the kids rewatching Harry Potter #3. We did some school work and then they played outside after lunch. The snow was great packing snow and it was sunny and 30 degrees - perfect for making snowmen and snow forts. 

After awhile they got cold and we decided to see The Rise of the Guardians at the cheap theater. It was cute, but you don't need to run right out to see it. I made the rookie mistake of forgetting tissue even though C is snotty and I had made a mental note to remember. I ended up having her blow her nose on an extra pair of SOCKS I had with me - I couldn't stand the sniffing anymore. We came home, I made risotto, we read Harry Potter and now the kids are in bed. This has been a really nice day. Tomorrow: I'm going for a run and we're going to a nearby ice festival!

Braiding

I did a 5 strand braid in L's hair yesterday: 

It turned out well, didn't it? I used this video and it was a lot easier than I thought. I attempted a waterfall braid in E's hair today and was successful! God bless You Tube videos and all those lovely creative people who make tutorials. I have no natural hair talent.

It's 8:30 pm when I'm writing this and I am totally exhausted. I took an awesome strength class today where we did sets of 12 and kept adding on. So we did 12 squats and then 12 lunges on each leg. Then we did 12 squats, 12 lunges on each side, and then 12 chest presses. Then we did squats, lunges, chest presses, dead lifts. And on and on until we were doing squats, lunges, chest presses, dead lifts, overhead triceps, a squat with a bicep overhead extension, a shoulder thing where your arms make a W and lift overhead to an O, a modified burpee, and a couple others I'm forgetting. It fools you because you think, "Oh! Just 12! No biggie!" and you use heavy weights and a heavy bar and work hard and then you are going through the cycle for the eighth time and she's still adding stuff and it's brutal. I stayed for step class afterward and I could tell my legs were already exhausted. It was a seriously great workout.

I went grocery shopping after the Y, unpacked the groceries, and then made all the food in the entire world ever. I made bacon and waffles and these went into the freezer for Wednesday night brinner. Then I made black bean soup for tomorrow. I made mashed sweet potatoes for my lunches this week and butter chicken and rice for dinner tonight. I made school lunches and snacks for tomorrow and then I cleaned everything up. (<--cleaning up is the worst)

I picked the girls up from school and we conquered multiplying double digit numbers. E slowly worked her way through a worksheet and I could tell she was frustrated. Part of it was her saying angrily, "I am SO FRUSTRATED," and part of it was her quiet sobs. I offered help, but she kept plugging away. I gave her a cookie (FOOD IS LOVE) and told her how my mom used to "accidentally" break a cookie and then say, "Oh my! We can't serve this to a guest! I guess I'll have to eat it myself! It's a sacrifice I'll make."

When she finished the worksheet I checked her answers and she got ONE right. ONE. Out of twelve. Her sobs increased. We took a break and ate dinner before tackling it again. This time I wrote out the problems on a new sheet of paper (the erasing and rewriting! How can I see anything?) and had her talk her way through the problems so I could hear her reasoning, like "Okay, four times six is twenty-four, put the four down, carry the two . . ." It became obvious almost immediately that she was occasionally multiplying when she should have added (and vice versa) and/or forgetting that extra zero in the second line. Her answers had all been really close to correct, so I figured it would be something fixable. She cheered up when she was allowed to double check herself with the calculator and I heaped praise upon her for her perseverance and excellent attitude despite her discouragement. 

I think she's hit a maturity growth spurt, because I've heard her staying calm while fighting with L and saying things like, "L. You just hit me with a ball. Who wants to play with someone who does that?" and "I'm very frustrated because I asked C not to color in this area and she has." Thumbs up.

Scarf: ACCOMPLISHED

I finished the scarf I'd been working on! Here is my model wearing it. Using thick yarn and size 10 needles made it knit up fast. 

It was a really simple pattern I got off Ravelry:

Cast on 24 stitches.

Row 1: K2, P2 

Row 2: P2, K2

Row 3: K

Row 4: P

Row 5: K2, P2

Row 6: P2, K2

Row 7: P

Row 8: K

I used the entire skein of yarn and since I kept track of my pattern using hash marks on a piece of paper, I can tell you that it took 240 rows. It's very cute and soft. I might make one for myself.

I inspired L, so we went to the knitting store today and she chose a bulky yarn to make a thin scarf. She's only going to cast on 12 stitches (based on the recommendation of the yarn store owner) and she's using my size 10 needles. She is slow, so I hope she'll follow through and not get bored before she's done. She's only using knit stitches, she tells me, and I think that will help her go a bit faster than her recently finished hot pad that used knitting and purling and in all honesty looks like a hot mess.

I cast on an easy bag (it's a pattern for kids) but there are a bunch of bags I'd like to make where I have to knit in the round. Suggestions welcome.

A spent a happy morning using our new vacuum cleaner and we both gagged at what came up from our carpets. But, as he told me, "This has been my most enjoyable vacuuming experience yet!" 

E and L played Just Dance 4 at the birthday party from last weekend. I caught the tail end of a One Direction song and impulsively ordered the game. IT IS SO MUCH FUN. I miss my ZUMBA! class; it doesn't fit in with my day shift schedule. This is like ZUMBA! but I can do it at home and with my kids. I wouldn't count it as an actual workout, but it's an activity where my heart rate is elevated. Besides that: FUN.

I spent Friday morning with third graders. I was tasked with going over tests/homework and working through the problems they had missed. A lot of them - to their credit - just needed me to point out, "Hey. This is wrong. Look at it again and tell me what you think." They'd look it over and say, "Oh!" and then fix it. There was a little teaching involved, but overall it was rewarding, not just for the task itself, but to know that my kids are making normal mistakes.

 Today, I ventured to the Y, but probably shouldn't have. We got a lot of snow last night and the roads were icky. I made it home and we decided to skip roller skating lessons since we couldn't get a hold of the facility and didn't want to drive all the way out there to discover it was canceled. L was tearful at first, but we had an "Every cloud has a silver lining" talk and for her the silver lining was Just Dance 4. 

I finished the scarf for C, we played the wii, I played mancala with C, the girls played outside, L and I went to the yarn store, A happily vacuumed the whole house, we made English muffin pizzas and watched The Cosby Show for dinner, I did a bunch of laundry, A read us Harry Potter . . . it was a really nice day. I was on call all day, so I made $2.50/hr but didn't have to go in and do anything.