Tag: family

Easter

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, friends, Holidays, Midlife Crisis, the beach

How do you celebrate Easter? Even though my kids are older now, and the Bunny has been found out, we still celebrate the holiday in much the same way we did when they were little. I make Easter Baskets of some sort for them. I hide eggs for them to find in an Easter Egg Hunt.

Tip: to keep your older kids interested, instead of candy or colored eggs, hide plastic ones with cash in them.

We have dinner with family and friends. I over-bake when I am entrusted with bringing the dessert course and then over-eat everything put in front of me. I always make “Church Window” cookies in honor of my grandmother. She always made them for me growing up because I loved them and she loved me. I still do the Easter Egg Hunt because my father loved to do that for us when we were little and so now I do it for my kids, but also to honor my dad.

I went for a walk on the beach this morning and was thinking about how Easter was my father’s favorite holiday (I think) and St. Patrick’s Day was my mother’s favorite. I wondered what my kids think my favorite holiday is?

Decluttering

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Marriage, my one word, Pantry Project, relationships, shopping

In the March 2012 issue of her magazine, Oprah says, “Identifying the cause of your clutter is the first step to getting it under control,” p.31.

Ya think?

Just in case that’s true…I thought about it in relation to my pantry, because food clutter is one of the areas with which I struggle (read: argue about with my husband). I look in my overflowing pantry and see safety, security, love. My husband looks in and sees clutter, chaos, disarray.

It’s a problem.

He is to the point now where he won’t even look in there to see if we have the can of tomato sauce, box of spaghetti, or whatever he needs to make supper that night. He would rather go to the store and buy what he needs, thereby completely avoiding the pantry and hopefully (but not usually) a fight.

Well, Oprah, let’s see if you and Peter Walsh can help us out. I’ll read the article and see if I can be helped. Peter’s idea in a nutshell is to pare down your belongings to basically nothing so they don’t have to be stored, dusted, arranged, etc.

Don’t think so.

My idea is this: get a bigger pantry. Just sayin’.

First pair of glasses, part 1

by Karen, posted in family, health, no fear, tweens
My first pair of glasses

I got my first pair of (many, many) glasses when I was twelve years old.  I was playing tag in my grandmother’s yard (with a friend-who-was-a-boy) and so of course not only was I running around like a nut, I was also distracted.  So first I was chasing Scotty, trying to tag him, and the next thing I knew I was on my butt in the grass, holding my mouth, bleeding.

I said, “Oh, crap!”

Scotty said, “Oh, bye!”

He left quickly.

What the hell happened? I had somehow managed to smash my mouth into the front of my father’s car, which was parked on the grass where we were playing. To my horror, as I went into the house to tell my mother what happened, I realized that I had shards of…what, tooth? Tooth! Shards of tooth were in my mouth! Not only had I gotten a fat lip from my “car crash”, but I’d also broken my front tooth.

My parents were more annoyed than sympathetic (this was gonna cost them). We didn’t have dental insurance so the fix was minimal (“I’ll just file it down so the sharp point from the tooth doesn’t puncture her tongue,” the dentist offered cheerfully). Worse than this was that the cause of the crash. I hadn’t crashed into the car because I was clumsy (well, not just because of that), as was first thought, but because I couldn’t see how close I was to it. 

I was nearsighted.

The state provided my glasses. I had no choice about which frame I got since there was only one option: the lovely cat’s eyes that you see pictured above. Although my dad tried to be upbeat about it, there was really not one bit of excitement involved.

So,  I’d lost half a tooth, but hey, I gained a pair of glasses soon thereafter.

Yay.

Not wasting my vacation

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, friends, Holidays, local fun, movies, restaurants, shopping, tweens, yoga

I think that it’s very important to get out of your rut–I mean, routine–on your vacation week. This is especially challenging, of course, if you are taking (yet another) staycation. Having part of your time off fall during the holidays can make it a little easier to break out…as in the  “Hel-lo? What day is it?” situation in which I found myself just after Christmas. Still, the gym on Tuesday and Thursday, food shopping on Saturday line up could definitely stand some tweaking.

Sunday: Christmas. ‘Nuf said.

Monday: Clean up the house, rest up from the holiday, dinner at Olive Garden. Happily, I found the $4 off dinner coupon prior to paying and then remembered to use it.

Tuesday: Friends came over to make home-made, authentic egg rolls. Last time we made chicken and shrimp. This year, to change it up some (hey, it is vacation!) we made a third version: spicy pork, which ended up being a hit.

Wednesday: Pirates game (a present for the fam) after dinner at Binga’s Wingas (a present for Dad).

Thursday: Friends day. Lunch with former colleague for our rescheduled gift exchange, then scrapbooking for the first time in a year and a half, with more friends. The understanding kind that are not shocked that, despite your good intentions, you did not remember to organize your stuff and print out the Christmas pictures to use that day. Hey, it’s all about friends, right? UPDATE: This event did not actually happen and will be rescheduled. Instead, I went to Kohl’s and bought some cute things on clearance. Yay!

Friday: Shopping at the mall with my tween with her gift cards. Got an $89.50 fur-lined hoodie at Aeropostle for $10!!!  This was followed by eating w/reckless disregard for the future at the Buffet of Gorging and Obscene Excess at the mall. Then we saw We Bought a Zoo at the movies. May I just say: Go. See. It. It was excellent. We both loved it. Movie watching was accompanied by popcorn and Peanut M+Ms (aka “the devil”).

Saturday: New Year’s Eve. Chinese buffet at East and Just Dance 3 on the Wii to work (some of ) it off. Yoga first thing in the morning.

Sunday: New Year’s Day: Pajama day! Read stack of books and magazines that have been piling up. Went for a walk. More Wii. And…let the healthy eating begin!!!! Egg whites, soup, salad were on the menu. Really.

One of the best vacations ever. 🙂

Angels dropping a dime

by Karen, posted in Angels, family, friends, good grief

I dreamed about my mother last night. We were in the house she grew up in and ultimately died in. We were standing together on the back porch, looking out at the snow-covered street. It was very sunny and bright, and we were watching a plow making its way through the snow drifts, clearing a path in the street. We didn’t talk, but I felt happy.

I woke up from this dream Christmas morning, and had a clear thought: thanks for letting me know that you’re with me today, Ma.

I was at my brother’s house for dinner later in the day for dinner. At one point, I stood up from the table to get a drink and we could hear something hit the floor. My sister-in-law picked it up and said, “Did you drop a dime?” so I said yes, and put it back in my pocket, not giving it much thought.

A little while later, after I had just finished telling my brother about the dream, another coin hit the floor. It was another dime. My sister-in-law said, “What’s with the dimes today?!”  I said, “It must be the angels letting us know they’re here.”  Another guest (who did not know about the dream) said, “It’s your mother!”

And so it was.

Angels and the creative process

by Karen, posted in Angels, family, tweens, writing

Instead of writing my blog post and examiner.com article and more NaNoWriMo words yesterday afternoon (and well into the evening…), I helped my tween daughter with her project for school.

The assignment was to make a collage that showcased the following:

  1. Your career aspirations
  2. Your interests
  3. Your talents
  4. Something else that I can’t remember (*midlife disclaimer)

She had already made a good start on it. We spread out the construction paper on the extra kitchen table that we brought up from the cellar and put in the living room for Thanksgiving (yep; it’s still there taking up every bit of extra space there is in that room. Don’t care. It’s very useful for… collage projects and such).

As we went through the stack of pristine magazines (that I had been too busy to read in November) looking for images to fill up the page, we talked about what her likes, talents, aspirations are. Want to get to know your tween better? Spend three hours making a collage with them.

As an aside, maybe it will help you get to know yourself better too. I started cutting out images to make my own collage as a result of this process!

Anyway, as I staring at a page, some words caught my eye: Joy, Peace, and Noel. I started cutting them out and then remembered the angel picture I’d seen on the previous page, which reminded me of an angel message I received from Stacey (Mainely You Massage) a few weeks ago.  She said that a Christmas angel had come through for me and my daughter, and was showing her the words “Joy” and “Noel” for us. There we were, sitting at that table, looking at those words in the presence of a (print) Christmas angel.  Oh my gosh!!! 

I suddenly felt that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing.

As an added bonus, all that cutting and pasting fired me up to write. I have notes all over the place containing story ideas that came to my during and after our project.

**In the collage, the Christmas Angel is toward the bottom left corner, and the words “Joy, Peace, and Noel” are toward the top right corner, just above the raccoon..

Garden Update

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, gardening

The garden is looking about as well as expected for early November. I still have carrots in the ground that I haven’t had time to pull. I have snapped off some of the greens from them to feed to the chickens who LOVE them, but otherwise, that’s it. The carrot portion is still laying on the ground next to the bed from which it was pulled by me and then abandoned, left forgotten as I ran off to work/yoga/food shop/(fill in the blank). Shame on me.

What I figured out this year is that as much as I love having a garden, and as much as I love choosing what we’ll plant and where, and as much as I love going to Agway to load up on the seedlings in late May with my husband…it was just too much for me this year.

I had the proverbial “Eyes are bigger than my stomach” attack–I have so much garden and so little time…

So, my husband and I talked and for next year, I am going to really, really keep it small(er). I’ve decided to continue with (and expand) the asparagus and the potato beds. Lettuce. Spinach. Sugar Snap Peas. String Beans. Red bell peppers. Eggplant. Tomatoes: only Romas and a couple of cherry tomato varieties and one heirloom variety. Oh, and strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, and blueberries…

Wow. My stripped down list still looks very large, doesn’t it?

ADDENDUM: OH! And my sister-in-law Andrea just reminded me about Zucchini! And of course, Yellow Squash. Thank you! 🙂

Time is on my side

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

I went to see my friend Stacey for a massage at Mainely You Massage a few days ago. I had picked the time so that I would not have to rush around to get there. I had the entire day off from work and had planned things to do (lunch and book-browsing with my friend Kristen, visiting another friend Teresa at her ice cream shop to try some new flavors that she created, dinner out with both of my children at the same time!) to which I was really looking forward and about which I was very excited. I arrived 15 minutes early for my appointment, after seeing my daughter of to school, my husband off to his job.

Stacey said, “How are you feeling this morning?” and I paused (completely uncharacteristic of me) and considered this question for a second before I responded. “Rushed!”  I was feeling like there wasn’t enough time. I felt pressured. “And there’s not one reason for my to be feeling this way!” I admitted. I pretty much always feel like I don’t have enough time to do the things I want to do, yet here I was, at the beginning of a day filled with exactly that, and I was still carrying this feeling around!

“That is a mantra that you created,” Stacey offered, inviting me to be focused on the thought, “I have plenty of time,” which is true, instead of  “I don’t have enough time,” which is (usually) not.

Wow.

As I went about my day, I started to really notice my thoughts, and was shocked at the number of times just that morning that I thought, “I don’t have enough time”!

Louise Hay, in many of her books, writes about the idea that, basically, “What you think is what you get.” I’ve believed this but for the first time I considered it in a different plane, almost, because even when I really did have all the time I wanted, it was right there in front of me, I didn’t see it.  Wasn’t appreciating it.

Has this ever happened to you?

Vacation week (continued, day 3)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food

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Sunday (Day 3) started off great. Got up early but for a good reason: to meet friends for brunch. We were on the road by 8AM headed for Cape Elizabeth’s The Good Table. We are forging a tradition with our friends of semi-annual Sunday brunches at this lovely place. Our timing was perfect and for the first time, the place wasn’t already packed before we got there. Plenty of table choices; we chose the screened porch but the tweens were cold (sweaters in the car) so we moved inside, next to a sunny window with views of wildflowers.

Izzy was adventurous and tried the Blueberry Crepes, and I (a creature of habit, apparently, as well as a Lover of All Things Italian) ordered The Italian Villa. Appetizers were in order: one big-as-your-head cinnamon bun, which my daughter and I split (and we still had some left over to bring home!).

Dropped our friends off at home, then stopped off at Spiller’s Farm Store for a box of K-cups and a quart of their delicious peaches. Next, I buckled down to work on my Legal Nurse Consulting class, lesson 10 of 12. Sort of. (Actually, that is what I should be doing now instead of writing this…:) )

Talk amongst yourselves…be back in a little bit. 🙂

Finished the class and the quiz (but not the assignment, oh well) at 2:00pm and decided to get outside to see what was going on in the garden. Fast forward to 4:00PM: I have tomatoes (and the chickens got to eat their fair share while I was picking them…happy chickens!), string beans, eggplants, a few blackberries, blueberries…and found 3 strawberries! Yay!

I briefly debated watering before I came in but my daughter was asking for supper to be started (we ate the big brunch and skipped lunch) so I came in and we ate…and then the thunder rolled in. Glad that I didn’t waste time (and water!) watering.

Working from home, week one

by Karen, posted in family, friends, Life in the cube, Work from Home, writing

At the end of my first week working from home, I thought I’d reflect a little on how it’s all going. There were several things that I knew would be different, but my days are shaping up to be much different from how I envisioned them. One of my friends said that she was worried that she’d be too isolated if she worked from home, since she lived alone. I never thought for a minute that I would feel that way, but it is sort of an isolated feeling to be sitting in your office alone all day, interacting with no one face to face. I mean. there are certainly people in the house sometimes while I’m “at work”, but I’m not a part of their activity, their day. I am APART.

What I thought I’d be doing once I started working from home:

  1. Exercising more, since I would have more time in the morning (you know, that part of the day before you talk yourself out of exercising?).
  2. Writing more. After all, I would be gaining more than 2 hours a day of not commuting and not getting meals packed and unpacked.
  3. Gaining weight. There is actually some walking involved in getting to and from Portland every day, parking the car, walking from the parking garage, taking a few sets of stairs…that would not be part of working from home.
  4. Seeing my husband and kids more.

What I actually am doing now that I am working from home:

  1. Turns out, I actually am exercising more. It will be 4 (maybe even 5!) days that I’ve done some form of excercise (yoga, beach walk, gym) by Saturday, versus the 1 or 2 days in a commuting week.
  2. Turns out, I’ve actually lost 2 lbs. Go figure.
  3. Turns out, I’m actually writing less. I really don’t have much downtime. I’m getting up later in the morning (which will end of course, when my daughter goes back to school in September) and pretty much going to bed shortly after I finish working at 9PM.
  4. I am seeing my family more, which is good. If I could only be right about one thing, I’m glad it was this one. 🙂

I’m missing a few things: seeing my friends at work,  the Wednesday Farmers Market in Monument Square, my audio books, the cupcake stores, Micucci’s pizza…

Pretty much, I’m still working on getting it together here, finding a new rhythm to my days.