teens – Page 2 – Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker

To boldly go, part two

March 29, 2015April 3, 2015 by Karen, posted in Disney, teens, Travel

So a funny thing happened after I decided to go to Disney with my daughter. You know how they say that the universe starts lining up to help you when you are on the right track? Well, it’s TRUE! I saw it happen with my own eyes!
First I thought, no way can I make this happen. Then my husband Bill said, “Of course, you can do it! You’ll figure it out.”

I was nervous about arranging getting there and back. Like, which airline? How do you book a flight? How much is reasonable to pay? Which airport? Then my son Anthony and his girlfriend Hannah, my friends at work (you know who you are!! Thank you!!!), gave me information that helped make this whole process easy.
I was overwhelmed with the thought of figuring out where to stay. My brother Patrick and his wife Andrea came through for me big time with this too, offering to let us stay at their amazing time share.

How would we get to the airport in time for our flight? We would have to get there by, oh, 6am or so and the airport is an hour and a half away. Also, I am directionally challenged. I can’t read a map. What if I got lost and we missed our flight? Then I my friend Ann said, “Hey, I want to help you and your daughter with your trip to Disney.” It turns out that she can see the airport from where she lives. She offered to let us come down the night before, eat dinner and stay over at her house, and then she would drive us to and from the airport on our departure and return days.

My friends Cindy and Laura offered to help in as well with anything else we might need. I am sorry if I have not named everyone who came forward. I appreciate you all!

My coworkers surprised me with a card with money to have a meal on them. Thank you Lynn, Christine, Charlotte, Lori, Laurie, Catherine, Pauline, Annette, Therese, Patti, Barbara, Carol, Sue, and Sheila. 🙂

Almost forgot: Shawna, thank you for the maps! And your advice! 🙂

I have no words.

To boldly go, part one

March 29, 2015March 29, 2015 by Karen, posted in Adult children, family, my one word, teens, Travel

My daughter has been asking to go to Disney since she was about 9 years old. I would always listen to her ask, nod, smile, and say that tried and true line that I’d borrowed from my own mother: “We’ll see.” I got away with that for, oh, 5 years or so. Five years during which she watched many of her friends go to Disney. Five years during which she watched her older brother go to Disney (in fairness, I never took him either-he was an adult and paid his own way when he went). Five years during which she got older and smarter and my “We’ll see” was starting to fall a little flat, even to my own ears.

A few years ago, she changed her tack; instead of asking to go, she started asking to go for her sixteenth birthday. That changed the game completely. That was a line in the sand. “We’ll see” is timeless, fluid, eternal. “By my sixteenth birthday” was a finish line. I stopped saying, “We’ll see” to my daughter and started thinking, “What if…?” to myself.

Since my one word this year is ‘brave’, the ‘what if’s’ have become more insistent. So what if I haven’t been on a plane in, oh, 25 years or so? So what if my vacation hours at work are precious and few? My daughter will only turn sixteen once. So what if park passes cost more than the airfare? So what if we live far away from an airport with a direct flight to where we are going? So what if the idea of getting us there and back is, um, terrifying?

We’re going.

Lemons

March 9, 2015March 9, 2015 by Karen, posted in Adult children, family, fitness, teens

I got up early on the Sunday of Daylight Savings Time, the way I (almost) always do. Time to make the donuts…

No wait! That’s not right! Time to feed the chickens….I threw on my coat over my PJ’s and bumped into my daughter on the way out. She said she was getting in the shower, and then inexplicably, picked up her phone and went on to the bathroom and shut the door. I went out the back door and the moment I shut it…I got the universal sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that one gets when they realize they just locked themselves out.

I called my daughter on said phone-no answer. I fed the chickens. I got the paper. I called her again. No answer. I texted her. Nothing. I called my other sleeping child on his cell. Nada. In desperation, I even called the land line.

Right. Nothing.

I stood on the porch, wishing I had put my jeans on as the 4 degrees seeped through my thin pajama pants. Let’s face it, a teenager’s shower could potentially take an hour.

I decided to (take my life in my hands and) take a walk. In the snow. And the ice. On my Very. Narrow. Street.

I made limoncello out of lemons! I am the type of woman who does that!

Of course, 3 minutes into the walk she called me, and I turned around and went right back.

A welcoming place

January 18, 2015 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, my one word, teens

I had the great pleasure of attending the Bean Tree Open House today with my daughter, Izzy. Their Facebook page describes Bean Tree as “a studio for creativity and growth”.

Sign me up for that.

When we entered the house through (after much discussion) the middle of three doors, we found ourselves in bright, cheerful kitchen. Nancy Carroll introduced herself and offered us the option of having some tea or to poke around the studio a bit first. We decided to poke.

Everywhere we looked there was something beautiful to see: a silver angel on a key ring, colorful mosaics hanging on the walls, lovely pottery pieces of all kinds. The energy in the rooms was warm and inviting. The pottery studio is on the left side of the house, and the collage studio is on the right. The kitchen is a central area where the aforementioned tea was brewing, and (nice surprise!) some plates of small baked goods were available: cookies and sweet rolls and scones, oh my! 🙂

The collage room drew me because I am interested in one of the upcoming Intro to SoulCollage (registered trademark keyboard symbol…where are you?) workshops Nancy has planned. There were tables of images available and a poster board on an easel so that today’s guests could contribute to a community collage for the Open House. Izzy and I took our time choosing our images. I found one that shrieked ‘brave!’ at me and after taking Nancy’s advice to trim it a bit, made my contribution. You can see it there on the left. Guess which images were from Izzy!

And then I ate a cookie (note to self: ask for the recipe-so good!).

Was that wrong?

There is another class mentioned on the website that I am interested in finding out more about: The Power of Home: An Art Journal Workshop. Yay! So much to look forward to!

What about you? How are you staying creative these days? Add your comment below.

Also, please consider helping me achieve my goal of reaching 1000 followers by clicking on the ‘sign me up!” button on the upper right corner of my blog. If you are already a follower, thank you so much! Here is a virtual cookie to show my appreciation!

Perfect day

November 14, 2014November 14, 2014 by Karen, posted in author, NaNoWriMo2014, teens, writing

My daughter has this interesting project at school. As I understand it, these are the rules:

Part 1: They have to write their perfect day, if money was no object, from the time they get up until the time they go to bed.
Part 2: They have to write what they think their day would be like if they had a baby while they are in high school.

Wow, right?

So that got me thinking: it might be fun to do the something similar myself. The Part 1 would be fairly easily accomplished, I think. But Part 2 would need to be changed up since, you know, I’ve already had two kids so I know exactly what those days are like…but I digress.

Since I am steeped in NaNos right now, I’m thinking my Part 2 could be writing what my day would be like when I finish NaNoWriMo this year, publish my book, and become a bestselling author.

🙂

The kindness of strangers

February 1, 2014February 1, 2014 by Karen, posted in Angels, family, friends, teens

My daughter was working in a project for her history class that required her to do a Jackie Chan impersonation. This required her to wear a gi ( full disclosure: until I googled it I was spelling it ‘gee’-my bad). Izzy did take karate years ago…for about 5 minutes. Needless to say, we did not own a gi.

So first, I put the word out to the Wells Women Facebook page but got no responses.
Next, I called my brother, who took judo and/or karate for years. “Sure, I have one,” he told me, “but I have no idea where it is,” he finished. “I know I didn’t throw it away,” he added, helpfully. No good. We needed it right away.
Then I had a sudden impulse to ask my friend Teresa. I don’t know why. I just did. And although Teresa didn’t have one, she knew someone who did.
Angela was willing to let my daughter borrow her gi, no questions asked. Because of the kindness of one friend and one stranger, my daughter’s Jackie Chan rocked!
Thank you Teresa. Thank you Angela.
🙂

Hair today, gone tomorrow

September 7, 2013 by Karen, posted in family, Midlife Crisis, teens

I have long hair. Whoops, I used to have long hair. I have a tradition. Every few years, when my hair gets long enough, I cut it off and donate it to Locks of Love. I have done this for years. My daughter donated her hair from her first hair cut.

I wasn’t sure how long it took me to regrow my braid so I checked back…had it been 3 years? Four? Nope. It’s been less than 2 year this time! Who knew my hair could still grow that fast?

The minimum required to make a wig is 10 inches, which is just what I gave this year.

This time, for some reason, my daughter tried to talk me out of it. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was, so I asked her,

And she told me. “Mom, I don’t think you look good with short hair.”

Once again proving that some things are better left unsaid.

Library book sale

July 31, 2013 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, friends, teens

My daughter and I ventured into new territory together last year when we volunteered together for the Friends of the Wells Public Library annual fundraising book sale.

We had such a good time volunteering last year that we are planning to do it again this year.

We mostly sorted and carried books to their proper spots on the tables that we helped to set up first thing in the morning. There were plenty of people of all ages there helping out along with us, including The Boy Scouts!!!

This years sale is scheduled for Saturday, August 10th from 10am -2pm and (you guessed it!), for some reason they need more volunteers than just me and Izzy. If you are so inclined and are local and want to help out, just email Susan at susan.layne1@gmail.com. Currently volunteers are still needed from 12pm-3pm on both Friday and Saturday.

If you come to help us, bring something to drink, like a big bottle of water (or maybe keep a cooler in your car with some cold drinks and an ice pack if you are planning to stay a while-hint! hint!). Also, a granola bar or two for you teenagers wouldn’t hurt (because God forbid you eat an apple or something).

If you don’t have time to help, consider coming to shop!!! Spending your money at the book sale will also be appreciated! The book sale is Saturday at the Wells Junior High School in the gym.

Remember (like Susan says): Many hands make light work!

See you there!!

Alive and Kickin’

July 27, 2013 by Karen, posted in family, Midlife Crisis, teens

Want to make your daughter’s day? Sing a song from your youth. I did this today, and in front of her friend, no less. What the hell was I thinking? I don’t know. I was inspired. In my defense, the song came on after “Operator” by Lady Gaga, catching me a little off guard. Yes, it is my iPod, but it’s a few years old and I haven’t used it in a while- maybe 6 months- so I wasn’t sure exactly what’s on it.

So, the song was Tighter, Tighter by Alive and Kickin’. When I was ten years old, my parents gave me a record player for some occasion or other (birthday? Christmas? I forget) and this was one of the three 45’s that they gave me with it. The others were Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes by Edison Lighthouse and Band of Gold by Freda Payne.

Because I loved these songs (this was before I discovered David Cassidy), I played them over and over. Or maybe it was because I only had these three records. Whatever. The point is this: Tighter, Tighter came out in 1970. Here I am in 2013 singing it and I remember all of the words (okay, most of them). Right? And not just this song; I remember the words to the other two songs too (and it must be said: much to my daughter’s chagrin).

Here’s what I wish: that Calculus had been set to music, because I couldn’t solve a theorem today to save my life, despite 4 courses in Calculus in both high school and college–elective courses. Yep, I took Calculus in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s because I liked it . In 2013, however, I don’t know cosines from shinola.

Note to mathematicians: If you all had set Calculus to music. I’d be a lot smarter today.

Mantra for 2013

January 1, 2013January 1, 2013 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, Midlife Crisis, restaurants, teens

At a company that I worked for a while back, the atmosphere was dark and heavy. People often described the job as “Well, it is what it is.” Body language and facial expressions left no doubt that what it was, well, was yucky.

After years of hearing this “It is what it is” crap, it became kind of ingrained in my subconscious. This phrase popped up in all kinds of situations that were unpleasant. “It is what it is” makes you feel powerless, even desperate.

I was thinking about it this morning as I drove to work. It’s New Year’s Day. I had gotten up extra early (hello, can you say 4:15AM?) so I could make a stop on my way. My quest for an early morning breakfast treat (a small baked good; not too much to ask for, right?) proved fruitless, because even though the McD’s and Dunkin Donuts in Sanford and Wells are open at 5AM, the McD”s and Dunkin Donuts in Kennebunk, alas, are not.

There I sat at 4:55AM, waiting for the drive thru to open up. At 5:03AM it occurred to me to give a quick check of the hours sign at the front door and I realized my error. I got on the highway, thinking that I would still have just enough time to go to the DD’s close to my job (the bad one that I have been avoiding since the cashier dumped an early morning coffee on a colleague).

I made it in time, got to the drive thru, and (hurray!) ordered my coffee and muffin. The clerk interrupted my happy dance to say, “Well, the muffins aren’t ready yet.”
What?

What?

My first thought was (you guessed it), “It is what it is.” Then, it occurred to me that this is indicative a Bad Attitude. I am not going to start my new year off with that old shoe on my foot. I’m going to put my best foot forward in 2013 and so I’ve adopted a new mantra:

“It is what you make it.”

When I got home from work, my daughter (who knew nothing about my morning) had a surprise waiting for me on the kitchen island: