Indigo Girl

Butt: Kicked

I know I only went from working 24 hours/week to 30 hours/week, but I added some call time and the occasional late night AND regular sleep. So really, I probably added an extra 6-10 hours/week of work-related time. As a consequence, I am more behind on everything and this is increasing rapidly at an alarming rate. I had today off and I knew I needed to buckle down and get stuff done and I'm much more motivated with a list. Here's what I accomplished:

• 3.5 mile run
• 20 minutes of weights and watching Louie C.K. It was a good idea in theory, but I kept laughing and losing my form.
• I washed all of the children's laundry, all of our laundry, and put away everything PLUS the last three weeks of the adult laundry. 
  
  
  It's okay. I had some help. Then the help got a bit lazy.
  Why do I have such a mental block against putting away the adult laundry? I put away the children's laundry religiously. 
• I brought the Christmas dishes (!) downstairs and brought up our regular plates and cups. (During winter, we have snowflake places and snowman glasses.) I ran the regular dishes through the dishwasher and put them away. 
  
• I brought up the new dog food and mixed it with the old dog food. I changed the 2 gallon water station we use for the pets.
• I cleaned the fish tank.
• I washed all the bathroom towels and put them away.
• I reserved the new David Sedaris book from the library.
• I emailed a few times with a speaker I'm trying to coordinate for E and L's class.
• I brushed the dog and got enough hair to make another dog.
• I wrote a check and mailed a card to my nephew who is graduating from high school. I resisted the urge to shriek, "I USED TO CHANGE YOUR DIAPERS!" He is such a nice kid and restores my faith in teenagers.
• I chose the purse that I wanted from Etsy. I have a dark brown cross body purse and I feel like I need something lighter for spring/summer. I also chose a necklace that I hope will move a black summer dress from "bathing suit cover-up" to "actual dress."
• I cleaned out my car. I gave a coworker a ride to the far away parking lot after work last night and all the crap I had to move off the passenger seat shamed me into it. We use A's car if our family is going somewhere together, so no one ever uses my passenger seat.
• I pick up our race packets for the Girls on the Run 5K we're running with E and L tomorrow. I washed and dried our t-shirts.
• I bought a Target gift card for the slumber party E and L are attending tomorrow night. We tried to find a gift for the birthday girl, but they were so wishy-washy about what she'd like that I ended up with a gift card.
• I instructed E and L to make birthday cards.
• I went over a recipe for Swedish cardamom bread that I'm making for their school's World Party. I need to buy yeast and flour tomorrow.
• On the way home from school, I stopped by the neighborhood store and bought dairy products (they get them from a local farm) and let the girls pick out all the flowers they'd like to plant. I'm a wee bit proud they knew the names of some of the things we've planted in the past (snapdragons, petunias). 
  
• I helped C work on her animal project that's due next week. She cut out pictures of birds (her animal of choice) and pasted them onto construction paper. We'll glue them onto poster board and add her five facts later this weekend. 
  
• I made a carbohydrate loading dinner of grilled chicken and goat cheese pasta with tomatoes and spinach.

Chicago, then Vomit

We spent the past weekend on a whirlwind tour of Chicago with Karen and her family. It was really fun and I have the pictures to prove it, but most of them violate my rule of No Kid Faces On The Blog. If we are FB friends, have at it. I put a bunch up there.

We left early Saturday morning and spent most of the first day at Lincoln Park Zoo. Zoos generally make me sad, but this one was better than our local zoo. We ate a picnic in the middle of the day and I think the kids enjoyed the aggressive seagulls more than any other animal.

By the late afternoon, we were exhausted. After not being able to find the restaurant the hotel guy told us about, we settled for Five Guys' excellent burgers. I think we were all asleep by 9:30. 

The next day we ate all the free breakfast the hotel offered and then walked all over Chicago. Karen's 9yo got sick early in the day and she spent the day alternating puking and sleeping all over Chicago - poor kid. We went to see sculptures by Alexander Caulder and Picasso. My children enjoyed chasing pigeons and the revolving door at Walgreens.

Our city is moderately large, but many times in the weekend I felt like my kids should be wearing t-shirts that said "Country Mouse." Chicago is a great city, though, and I - with my love of cities - could live there happily.

I was about to say "We wandered over to Millennium Park . . ." but really, we didn't wander anywhere. I am a planner, but Karen is an uber-planner and had our route mapped out. So we marched in formation to Millennium Park and enjoyed playing around the bean and the spitting fountains. 

At some point in time, Karen took this picture and I love it. I'm a sucker for walking away pictures.

We wended our way through the streets and visited Navy Pier, The American Girl Doll store and The Lego Store, Gino's East for an awesome pizza lunch, and finally on to what L had been dying for: the subway. I only knew the El as being an above ground train, so I emailed A's cousin who lives in Chicago and asked if any part went underground. We were in luck - the stop nearest The American Girl Doll store was underground. L was psyched.

In all the face pictures she's wearing a huge shit-eating grin (country mouse!). I thought this would be one of those things where the experience didn't live up to the hype, but now she's planning to move to Chicago so she can be a regular subway rider. I am allowed to visit, she agrees.

Unsurprisingly, our tour of the city with a puking kid meant that I was getting ready to show A that "Ship My Pants" commercial Monday night when E burst through the door at the bottom of the stairs, made an awful wreching sound, and spewed vomit everywhere. I yelled, "Bathroom! BATHROOM!" and she left a trail through the kitchen to the bathroom. L was in the same situation a few hours later. I slept downstairs with them and was up every 30-60 minutes through the night to puke. It was not fun. Everyone is now on the mend and C never got sick (knock on wood). We think her cheerfulness may be some sort of immune system force field.

Allergy Free Since 1976

This weekend was beautiful and I opened all the windows in our house on Saturday afternoon. We got new windows on the main floor last year and I opened all thirteen of them. Within a few hours, the sore throat I had been enduring all week spread into sinus pain, sneezing, itchy eyes, and a runny nose. "NO EFFING WAY," I said and A suggested, "Take one of my Zyrtec." "NO," I replied. "I AM SICK. I DO NOT HAVE ALLERGIES. THE ONLY THING I'M ALLERGIC TO IS SULFA." 

A few hours later, I succumbed and took a Zyrtec. It helped. DAMMIT. I walked around in a snot-free zombie-like daze for the rest of the day and bought some Claritin the next morning. I spent the day feeling like I was drunk in public, but trying to act normal so people wouldn't know, like "Can they smell my breath? Do they suspect anything?" I was on call this weekend and had to go in twice to put in emergency pacemakers, but I could pull myself together and focus for those. Really, I just wanted to go to sleep. 

I feel hungover this morning even though I got a solid nine hours of sleep. This is awful. I'm going on a drug holiday. I'll see if my allergy symptoms come back and if they do, I'll try half of a pill. I cannot spend weeks feeling stoned every spring. I'm too old for this.

Speaking of old, I went to the dentist on Friday and when the hygienist asked, "Any problems?" I said, "Yes. A few months ago I was not eating, but suddenly had pieces of rocks in my mouth. I think I may have broken a tooth." Five points to Gryffindor! I was right. I haven't been wearing my bite splint at night because I hate the feeling of something in my mouth. I keep waking up enough to be aware of it and end up feeling exhausted in the morning. But my bad habit of stress jaw clenching led to a cracked tooth which led to a broken tooth which is leading to a $400 crown next month. Getting old is bullshit.

Sunday

A took this picture of me last week and it is such a perfect representation of my life right now. I can't even take a nap on the couch without people and animals all over me. I love it. (Usually.)

Yesterday my in-laws took the girls to see the musical (?) Anne of Green Gables at a local theatre. We haven't read the book together yet because we're seeing Harry Potter through to the end and because Karen warned me, "You've probably forgotten how much description is in that book!" They all loved the story, so we might move it up on our mile long list of books-to-be-read.

A and I used the time to have a late lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. It involved the cheese plate, pad thai, and wine in the middle of the day. So indulgent!

Today we went to the early church service and then took advantage of Free Museum Day in our city. We parked at the Y and first went to see how the river looked with all the rain and flooding. 

You can see the street lamps out in the water. There's a walkway near those and the river is usually farther away and down the side of the bank.

Here you can see a railing leading to death. The stairs that are normally a safe walkway along the water are submerged. That's an overhead street light almost touching the water.

We ogled the water for a while (L: "What does ogle mean?" Me: [hesitating while I think of the right definition] Her: "Gawk?" She doesn't even need me anymore! Sniff) and then moved on to the art museum. My children showed great maturity as they immediately honed in on the most complex works:

We rode the trolley around town for a bit. A and I high-fived our foresight in choosing the art museum when we saw the ridiculous line to just GET INTO the children's museum. It must have been insane inside. 

I snapped a picture of the girls in front of the trolley when we got off. C is hilariously downcast and shook her head sadly at me when I said, "Can you smile for the picture?" For the record, she had just tried to snatch A's phone out of his hands and had been gently reminded that she cannot grab something she wants. 

Palm Springs, The Bastard

The good parts of A being in Palm Springs this week:

I get the whole bed to myself. Well, me and the cats.

I get to drive his cute little CRV. 

I got to eat all the leftover salmon and risotto from Saturday night. 

The bad part:

He is in freaking Palm Springs where it is sunny and 70 degrees and I am here where it is 50 and rainy. I am so bitterly jealous. At least it's not snowing.

I told the girls that they could each pick a meal we would eat when he was gone and no, it can't be pizza each night. E chose hot dogs (sigh) so I had leftover salmon and risotto for lunch and am having hot dogs for dinner. L chose spaghetti and C chose macaroni and cheese, so we will be carb loading the rest of the week. Annoyingly, L and E don't like mararoni and cheese - not the homemade kind, not the chemical filled Kraft kind, and not the organic Annie's kind. I wonder if they are pod people.

Karen and I are planning a May trip to Chicago with our families. How do we find the cheapest hotel rate? Do you use Priceline? Do you call the hotel directly? Please advise.

Ballet and More Knitting

We went to the spring break ballet that our city's junior ballet company put on. It's only 30 minutes and tickets are $5. They had activities before the show, so a ballerina helped C and L try on different costumes, we got to see and talk to some of the dancers, do an obstacle course, and participate in a trial ballet class. I know it's supposed to be about exposing my children to art and whatnot, but I spent most of the time wishing I had the back and butt muscles those dancers have. They are amazingly muscular, but in a pretty way, not bulky or big. 

I want to give a shout out to waiting with big kids. It's so much better than waiting with littles.

The other night I found E dancing in front of the mirror. She was singing Taylor Swift's song We Are Never Getting Back Together. I did not laugh, but instead showed her how to use a hairbrush as a microphone. I've found myself humming One Direction songs. I think we are officially entering the tween years. (I hate the word tween. I would love an alternative.)

I finished knitting my bag (using this pattern) and bought a matching piece of cloth to line it a long time ago, but this week I finally got around to asking Karen to help me finish. She has a sewing machine and experience whereas I would be sewing all needle-and-thread. She hemmed my cloth and then sewed it into the bag and sewed the bag together. Now I have a bag I made!

Next up: I'm going to finish my scarf (I'm on my 2nd skein of yarn and I am very tired of it) and then I'm going to find a simple bag pattern than involves knitting-in-the-round since most of the cute bags require it. I want it to be EASY. Wish me luck because as much as people rave about ravelry, they have patterns marked "Easy" (1 on a 1-10 scale) that involve a lot of complicated techniques. I find it quite discouraging. Twitter suggested a booga bag. I don't really like the feel of felted bags, but I understood most of that pattern. Reading ravelry patterns marked "easy" and not understanding half of what they tell me to do makes me want to give up. Maybe I should try something easier, but I LOVE bags and want to learn to knit them so desperately.

Here is my knitting question: is it better to get double-point needles and knit in the round that way or to get circular needles and learn the Magic Loop method? Or are there other options? Do you have to do both depending on your project? I am wondering how much money to invest. And if you have a bag pattern to recommend for a newbie, please do. Bonus points if it has simple and clear directions.

Brownie Dip and Home Movies

It was a really busy week at work with a few people on vacations, so I ended up working some overtime (15 hour shift on Wednesday - do not recommend) and took Friday off to regroup. A and I went to the Honors Assembly that morning to see E and L receive their honor roll certificates and were surprised to find out that L was student of the month! We were supposed to see E get her math medallion for passing all her timed multiplication tests, but they delayed those awards for the next assembly. Boo. Especially since I have to work on the day of the next assembly.

I left the assembly and went grocery shopping, but was interrupted by a call from school to come get a sick E. Or, I should say, a "sick" E. She did have a snotty nose, but was absolutely convinced that she had a fever (she didn't) and needed to be home. I think it was the disappointment from not getting her math medallion plus a substitute teacher who doesn't know she is an occasional malingerer. I brought her home and we vegged out on the couch until it was time to go back to school for the other two. 

There is a dress that L used to have and love but has since outgrown. The replacement was 30% off at Meijer this week, so I bought her another one. She passed the smaller dress down to C. E had expressed desire for the same dress, so now despite my years of dressing them differently, they ended up looking like this. I think it's sweet when it's their choice. They all wore their dresses in 25 degree weather and made up some game involving fairies and veils. 

I made brinner that night: blueberry pancakes, banana muffins, home fries, and fruit salad (pineapple and strawberries). We devoured it. I'm using this as a mental note to make this exact meal more often.

Sometime last week, A's sister posted this picture of us on Twitter: 

We are 18 and 20 years old there (maybe 19 and 21?), but may as well be FETUSES (feti?) for how young we look.

Saturday I made brownie dip and cookie dough dip to bring over to Karen's house where we met up with other people and watched/mocked the last Twilight movie. It is definitely a movie to be seen in someone's house so you can mix it up Mystery Science Theater 3000 style. 

We took some time this afternoon and interviewed each kid. I've been wanting to do this for a while. The girls love looking at the few videos we have of them at younger ages (I am not great at taking home movies) and I know that as big as they all seem right now, they are going to get BIGGER (I KNOW!) and I'm going to wish I could hear their little voices again. We asked them a bunch of different questions: who are your friends? what do you want to be when you grow up? what are you afraid of? what do you like to do for fun? what's your first memory? what book are you reading now? etc. I am going to try to do it every year. L declared, decisively, "We will do this every Palm Sunday." Thus she spake. 

My Legs Hurt

I have had such a week at work. Part of it was great and part of it was horrible and I am all done processing it. The thought of summing it up again makes me tired, so please forgive me for being cryptic. I'm glad it's over.

After all that, I knew I had to run today and I ran the farthest I've run since getting plantar fasciitis: 7.7 miles! (I really want to round up to 8 miles, but it's not quite close enough, and I don't want to round down to 7.5 miles because I ran MORE than that and I want credit for it.) Aside from the 3-5 seconds I stopped for a red light and traffic, I ran the entire time - no walk breaks. My foot feels fine today and if it feels okay tomorrow, I'm going to continue to increase my distance. My legs and butt hurt, but it's a good kind of hurt. I hope I can walk tomorrow. 

I picked the girls up from school today and we got shamrock shakes from McDonald's. They are so delicious (please don't tell me what's in them - I already had to record the calorie count in My Fitness Pal) and I figured it was about time to introduce my children to them. Then we went to the school skating party which was about as fun for me as you'd expect.

If you use Google Reader then you know they are retiring it for some reason on July 1. I haven't read anything about why they are no longer offering a popular service, so I don't know the business behind the decision. If you use another RSS reader that will work on a computer and a phone AND you like it, please make your recommendation.

Getting It All Done

Lately I have been having non-working days where I have no choice but to get everything done. I am looking forward to some down time this weekend, but until then, I forage on.

Our fridge stopped working last weekend. It's been making sad futile noises for a week now, so I was not surprised to find melted ice cubes in the freezer. We made do with a cooler on the deck (it's a high of 30, low of 10 here right now) but that's less than ideal. It keeps the milk from spoiling but wrecks the texture of the lunch meat.

This morning, after I sent the kids and A off to school/work, I went to the scratch and dent store where I had bought our non-working fridge almost exactly ten years ago. I followed the exact same procedure: scouted out the black/stainless fridges (there were four) and chose the one with the dent that would be covered by my calendar. When they asked when I'd like it delivered, I requested meekly, "Today?" and held my breath. By supreme coincidence, they were delivering an appliance to our neighbor at 10 am and could they drop off my fridge at 11, LESS THAN THREE HOURS FROM THEN? HELL YES. Sorry, I just couldn't believe my luck. Woo! 

I picked up our wet dry vacuum (loose gasket) from the vacuum repair shop and the cat meds from the vet, then zipped back home to push the fridge out of the way and clean the wall and floor. I finished just in time to make my class at the Y. I got my butt kicked and was pulling into my driveway as the delivery guys finished with my neighbor and waved to me. Timing, baby.

I spent the next two hours throwing out the spoiled food, moving all the magnets/pictures to the new fridge, and figuring out what I needed to replace. I went grocery shopping and then to World Market for coffee syrup. They are having a "Moving! Everything Must Go!" sale, so the coffee syrup was almost gone. I picked up C from school and we got cat/dog food and looked at the animals to kill time while E and L were at Girls on the Run. We went back to get them a little early and she read her book to me as I knitted. E and L came out brimming with excitement that they had run half a mile today (cute!) and we picked up pizza on the way home.

We got home, ate, and I unloaded the groceries and put everything away. C colored while E and L did their homework and thankfully needed minimal supervision from me today. I packed lunches for tomorrow, bathed everyone, and put away laundry with L's help and encouragement. (Me, despairingly:"I don't WANT to put away laundry AGAIN." Her, comfortingly:"It's okay, Mom. I'll help!" and she did most of it.) I read stories and Harry Potter and tucked them all in. Now I am done and going to bed. 5:30 comes early.

Only Sometimes Overwhelmed

It was a wild and crazy Friday night as I watched hair videos on You Tube to get ideas for L's hair. I found out how to do that twisty braid-like thing and did E's hair like that. I followed this tutorial to do a bun for L and it turned out well even though I didn't have the cute flower hair clip to accessorize (mental note: buy a cute flower hair clip!). That girl in the video has the most beautiful hair. I did this updo this morning based on this tutorial, even accessorizing it with a bow we already had! I'm feeling quite successful for being such a non-hairstyle person my whole life. 

E and L started Girls on the Run this week and like it thus far. They run after school twice a week in preparation to run a 5K at the end of May.

C made this sign about herself and my SIL suggested that world peace could be achieved if everyone did this.

The children have made a cardboard house/rocket that Roland seems to think belongs to him.

I am having that overwhelmed I'LL NEVER GET EVERYTHING DONE feeling as I think about having a realtor come, look at our house, and make suggestions about getting our house in shape to put on the market (this year or next). Then I think about the regular day-to-day things of dinner and homework and laundry and I start to hyperventilate. Friday morning I was lolling about thinking, "Why bother? I'll never get everything done" but decided to do SOMETHING, so I:

• started the laundry
• ran 6 miles
• took down that Christmas decoration that I had forgotten about and brought it and next year's Christmas pjs that I had bought on sale in January to the basement.
• made three phone calls
• returned a library book
• meal planned, made a grocery list, and grocery shopped
• spent 15 minutes in the new Goodwill by the grocery store to see if its worth frequenting
• picked up the kids, got home thinking that I would have over an hour to get dinner ready and then realized that I had forgotten to pick up the cat medicine from the vet. Piled all the kids back into the car and drove to the vet. Got home, realized they had shortchanged me a lot of pills, called them, got it straightened out, and made plans to pick it up on my next day off (Tuesday). 
• Made everyone dinner and brought them all back to school with sleeping bags and pillows for a movie night (Hotel Transylvania) in the gym.

I find the days I work to be overwhelming and then I DON'T want to be doing a million things on my days off, but I'm not sure there is any alternative. I have so much sympathy for people with long commutes and full or more than full-time jobs. On my work days, I'm out the door at 6:30 and - ideally - leaving work at 5:15-5:30. By the time I pick up my kids and we're home, it's an hour later. We eat whatever I've got in the crockpot and are doing bedtime stuff by 7:15. A and I are coming back downstairs to pick up, pack lunches, etc by 8. I am in bed by 9 or 9:30 to get up at 5:30 the next day. There isn't a lot of extra time.

We had a great Saturday yesterday even though I was on call and was called in to place an internal defibrillator. I went to my step aerobics class and A went for a run when I got home. Just before 11, I went into work, but was home by 1:30 (two hours of overtime pay! Thank you!). A took E out for lunch and frozen yogurt while L and I put away laundry, cleaned the fish tank, and baked cookies. In the evening, we popped popcorn and watched The Gruffalo and a few more episodes of The Cosby Show (I think we're on season 3). We finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and I don't THINK my kids are sociopaths, but no one was as sad as I thought they should be at the end of the book. Seriously, I BAWLED.

I am thinking days and evenings like this need to be put on hold if we're going to do home improvement stuff and get our house on the market. I'm such a glutton, though, and I don't WANT to give up relaxation time. I want MORE relaxation time. Sigh.