Category: family

Volunteering

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, local fun, teens

My daughter and I signed up to volunteer for two hours this morning to help with tasks involved in getting ready for the annual library book sale. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Even though I looked forward to and attended the book sale almost every year, I had never been involved in any of the activities that preceded it.

We arrived a little early to find a smattering of other early birds there at the crack of 9:00AM, ready to help. We jumped right in.After a few “thank you’s” from Susan, the lovely woman in charge, I said, “Actually, I’m having fun!”

And you know what? I was having fun. More than that, I was having a great time.  Even though it was very muggy and I was sweating and thirsty, I was enjoying what I was doing and the time was passing quickly. As I thought about why, I realized that volunteering to help set up for the library book sale combined two of my favorite things:

  1. Being with the books
  2. Bringing order to chaos

I was especially pleased because I was able to identify, almost without thinking about it, exactly what it was that made me enjoy the work so much. It was a physical job: hauling books from one end of the gym to the other. Usually I don’t love exercise, but then it occurred to me that I was getting my ‘workout’ this morning doing purposeful activity with something to show for it at the end besides sore muscles: the dozens of cartons of books that were arranged on tables, spines, up, ready for the customers tomorrow–another bonus.

Our two hours of volunteering turned into four and a half. We stayed until the job was done.

As it turned out, the day included another one of my favorite things: PIZZA!  Susan unexpectedly treated us to pizza for lunch.  Because in the end, it’s always all about the food…and today, it was also all about the books!

Writer’s lull

by Karen, posted in education, family, Midlife Crisis, writing

For weeks and weeks, I was the whirling dervish of writing:

  1. I had a few blogs going for which I posted several times a week.
  2. I was writing 2000 words a day for my book.
  3. I was writing book reviews for several websites.
  4. I was writing restaurant reviews and food articles for an online magazine.
  5. I was writing millions of words in emails to my friends and coworkers daily.

…and so on; you get the idea. I was wily and whimsical in my writing.

Then, an issue came up in relation to the education of one of my children and suddenly I found that much of my writing time was taken up with writing emails, letters, and synopses of events and phone conversations for many different involved parties, almost every day, including weekends, almost to the exclusion of all else. I was diligent and dutiful in my writing.

Now there is a lull in the education issue. I have reluctantly come to realize that there is now a lull in my writing activities as well. I have learned this: the more I write, the more I write. Unfortunately, the converse is also true: the less I write, the less I write. This writer’s lull is different from writer’s block. It’s not that I have no ideas about what to write. I have plenty of ideas;  I just can’t seem to get them out of my head and onto the page.

I was distressed. When I told a friend about this, she suggested that this is actually a period of renewal, a time to foster new ideas and thoughts that will fuel my next writing phase. She further suggested that this period of writing not-so-much is part of the process, and therefore is necessary and beneficial.

I’ve decided to go with it, on the chance that it might be true.

It feels true.

Book review: The Sound of Hope

by Karen, posted in books, education, family, health, no fear, teens, tweens

The Sound of HopeThe Sound of Hope by Lois Kam Heymann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is geared toward children from birth through about age 8 with APD. It’s still worth reading if your child is older, but there aren’t many interventions that will work with your tween or teenager. Also, I thought it was very naive of the author to lead parents to believe that their school district will be ready, willing, and/or able to work with them to make sure that their child with APD receives a fair and appropriate education and is successful in school. The odds are that the school personnel will not even have HEARD of APD. The burden will be on the parents to advocate for their child.

View all my reviews

Brave the movie

by Karen, posted in family, local fun, movies, no fear, teens

Brave in a nutshell: Best hair in a movie–ever. Lots of slap stick humor. Butts abound. There is one anomaly: a mother.

This is a Disney film, after all, but it includes a mother. Any of you who grew up with Bambi, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Cinderella…evil stepmothers notwithstanding, there are no living birth mothers in this crowd.

In Brave, however, Merida has one. Does she get to keep her? Well, yes. And no. And yes.

I took my daughter and her friend to see this movie, but it was really more like they took me. I am the one that really wanted to see it. They were sort of humoring me, I think. In the end, though, they both said they liked it as much as I did. They especially liked Merida’s trio of terrible brothers. Okay, fine. So did I.

The central conflict in the movie is this: it’s ‘time’ for Merida to step up and be the princess that her mother has been grooming her to be since birth, and Merida is not the least bit interested in doing this. For (not) the first time in the history of the world, what a mother desires for her daughter and what a daughter desires for herself are two very different things.
From there, a metaphorical battle ensues between mother and daughter as they each try to make the other come around to their own point of view.

Go; see if the twain shall meet.

Speaking your truth

by Karen, posted in Angels, family, friends, good grief, local fun, Midlife Crisis, no fear, Turning 50

Over the past several months, I’ve had quite a lot to say about turning 50 this year to quite a lot of people.

That was then. Several months ago, heck, even several weeks ago, it seemed so far off in the future.

This is now. Now, it’s looming large, and for some reason, I’m finding that I have very little to say. That’s so unlike me! Usually, I’m “talking and I can’t shut up”–just ask my husband.

As part of my turning 50 and vowing to follow any and all whims that present themselves, I bought a half off Maine Deal coupon for a psychic reading by Melissa Boyd of Deep Blue Truth.

One of the things she told me (apart from that my Mom, Dad, and grandmothers were all there and said, ‘Hi!’ 🙂 ) was that my throat chakra was so backed up it was like a bottle neck. The throat chakra is #5, counting up from the bottom root chakra. This is (surprise!) the center of communication and expression.

Apparently, I am not speaking my truth. Who knew? After doing a little online research, I learned that wearing a particular bracelet–one made of Sodalite–can help. (Really? Really? If only it turns out to be that easy).

I’m willing to give it a try.

The big lie

by Karen, posted in family, friends, Midlife Crisis, no fear, Turning 50

“Effective multitasking is a myth. Would you want a tooth filled by a dentist who was talking on a cell phone? “~ Downeast Magazine, April 2012, p. 25, “Time for a Driver Cellphone Ban”.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote since I read it. And when I dropped (and broke) several of the vintage Pyrex bowls I had for years. And whenI burned my finger taking a cookie sheet out of the oven with one oven mitt on instead of 2. And when I pulled the vacuum over while vacuuming  lamp shade, resulting in a 6 inch bruise on my leg.

Of course, any midlife woman has heard the “Having it all” myth too, right? Is there a bigger lie out there? Well, apart from the multitasking one?

My husband keeps telling me that I have too much on my plate. Much of what is taking up so much of my time right now is beyond my control, but I am the one who has to deal with it.  Many of you are almost certainly dealing with some administrative thing(s) that you wish you didn’t have to deal with (like completing tax returns?). Add to that eating and sleeping and keeping yourself cleaned up, all of which consumes even more portions of your day. If you are lucky enough to have a job, that might take up the majority of our waking hours most days. Add taking care of children to that list…and your day is now about 24 hours in the red, right?

I was talking to my friend Susan about how to fit everything we want to do into any given day when our brainstorming led to a breakthrough: Maybe we should be asking a different question. Not, “How do we fit everything in?”  but “How do we choose what to leave out?”

 What do you think?

Mirror Mirror

by Karen, posted in family, friends, local fun, movies

I took my daughter and her friend to see Mirror Mirror today. I have to admit that I was disappointed that Julia Roberts was in the movie. I have a love-hate relationship with Julia: I love the movies she is in but I hate her. Okay, maybe that’s overstating it, but you get the idea.

I put this aside because I love the story of Snow White. Lily Collins (who is my new girl crush) plays Snow and she is perfect in this role. She makes Snow into a strong female who takes no crap from anyone. She learns how to defend herself. She doesn’t fall for the Prince’s lines. She gets him on her own terms. Just like in Tangled,  this is a woman who saves her man. And herself. And her dad. And her kingdom.

The dwarves are a riot, like a peanut gallery. Or a Greek Chorus. They have a running dialogue that sometimes is off camera but hey, pay attention to their comments because they are hysterical.

The only thing I didn’t like was the sequence at the beginning. While Julia narrates the back story, a series of animated characters are shown that look like mannequins. I thought they were kind of creepy and could have done without them.

When the movie ends, stay put. There is a musical number at the end sung bySnow White: I believe (In Love)’. It’s worth watching.  Full disclosure: I liked it so much that I found it on YouTube and watched it about a hundred more times after I got home.

Sometimes I get obsessed when I really like something.

Party!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, friends, local fun, Midlife Crisis, relationships, Turning 50

I have never had friends over to my house since I moved here in 2006 that wasn’t associated with a holiday or a kid’s birthday. So, when I decided to have a Creative Memories Scrapbooking Party it was sort of a big deal.
Who to invite was the first thing to figure out. I decided to put the question on Facebook and in a few emails first to see if anyone would even be interested in such a thing. Turned out, quite a few people were interested.

Next, I decided to invite only people who said they were interested (either directly to me or indirectly, through others). I was pleasantly surprised when several of them accepted.  Then came the fun part: what to feed everyone.

Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll probably tell you that I’m all about the food. Ask my husband and he’ll probably tell you that I’m all about overdoing the food. I decided to consult my sister-in-law, Andrea, who is great at such things. I took her advice to “Keep it Simple” as well as her advice about quantities to buy.

I spent the morning cleaning the house, and with the help of my son Anthony and my daughter Izzy, we got everything ready early. Then I confidently headed out to shop with my daughter. As the day went on, the cancellations rolled in. I tried not to worry. My husband kept me laughing with text messages and phone calls…”Hello, this is the Wells Police. We have a report of a wild scrapbooking party at your house….” and so forth (thank you, Bill!).

In the end, the Tupperware Party rule prevailed: half of the people who way they are coming ultimately will not.

It was great though. We had plenty of room to work on the projects. Susan, the Creative Memories Consultant (and my friend!) had done all the prep work in advance to make it easy for even a novice scrapbooker.  The lovely women at my party ranged in age from 13 to somewhere just barely into her fifties (you know who you are!). And because it is true that I am all about the food, we had the most delicious cupcakes for dessert from Somethin’ Sweet in Sanford (check out her Facebook page for daily flavors and specials). My guests even let me bore them with my talk about my Book of Fifty (the scrapbook I am working on for my 5oth birthday year).

I had the best time ever. Thank you, everybody.

The Hunger Games

by Karen, posted in family, friends, local fun, movies

I went to see The Hunger Games last Saturday night with my daughter and her friend. I did not read any of the books in the trilogy (really) and didn’t have any clue about what to expect. My daughter had read some of the book and her friend had read all of it (actually, her friend had read all of the trilogy). Most of the women I know had read at least the first book.

I really had no interest in them, and I am a reader, so my family and friends were very surprised. But hey, it’s not like it’s the Twilight Series (yes, have read all of those books and seen all of those movies; go Edward!).

So, if there is anyone out there besides me who hasn’t been initiated, The Hunger Games is pretty disturbing. It’s kind of like Survivor, except that the losers all get killed. The beginning of the  movie reminded me of the Ray Bradbury story, The Lottery. Remember that? The town’s folk all come out to see who wins the lottery, and the winner gets stoned to death by the crowd.

In The Hunger Games, the crowd usually gets to watch all but one of the 24 contestants get killed on Prime Time TV; it’s an annual event.  Grossed out yet? One good thing: the blood and gore (knife slashings, neck breakings, and the like) are distorted by a trick of the camera, so you know what’s happening, but you don’t get the full brutal effect. My son (who works at The Wells Five Star Cinema) enlightened me about this: it’s so the movie can get its PG-13 rating. Works for me.

There were more adults in the theater than kids, so clearly these stories appeal to adults. The verdict? We three (a 49 year old and two 13 year olds) all liked it…so we gave it Three Thumbs Up!

Go see it!

After the fall

by Karen, posted in family, friends, Karen's Kitchen, Midlife Crisis, the beach

I had a disaster in my kitchen today. I was lifting down some big Pyrex mixing bowls from a shelf, something I’ve done dozens and dozens of times. Something I do almost every day. I was lifting them down to put one back in the stack. As I brought the stack down to the counter, suddenly I heard a crash. I think I heard it before I realized what happened. One moment I was lowering the bowls to the counter, then next moment I had no bowls in my hands and there were millions of pieces of glass covering every inch of my kitchen counter, floor, and my feet.

I was shaking, so I just stood there for a minute while I took stock and tried to breathe. I know that cuts don’t hurt at first, so I was looking for blood to see how bad the damage was. Unbelievably, all of the cuts, and they were few, were superficial.

The damage to the Pyrex was worse: My 2 favorites bowls were broken: the large yellow and the large Amish.

I told my daughter and her friend to stay in her room. I realized my son was home so I called him. “I need help.” He said, “Give me a minute,” then came up, looked around, asked me if I was okay, then got to work. I would like to say that he helped me clean it up, but really, he cleaned it all up while I picked up shards of glass then put them back down again, still too shaken up to do much at all.

I thought of all that while I was walking on the beach later on this morning. I looked at the ocean and thought: The ocean makes everything better.

I was wrong though. After a few moments, I realized this: Family and friends make everything better.  I lost nothing. I have everything.