Posts from the “Routines” Category

Summer: the great equalizer

Posted on June 10th, 2013

I am not a summer person, but I’ve been looking forward to June ever since March. June means everyone’s kids are out of school, and I won’t get the third degree. Then again, my life isn’t really changing. We still are working our way through math, reading, science, music, and so on (and we’re adding Highland dance back into the mix, after a hiatus — I have mixed feelings about it, but that is another story). I am still balancing trying to write/edit with overseeing all this. Pea is looking forward to my impending surgery with glee because not only does she get to spend the night with friends, but she also foresees getting to watch all the TV she wants while I’m incapacitated.…

Categories: Not crazy...yet, Routines

AAL’s guide to asking me questions about my kid not being in school

Posted on June 7th, 2013

My child is now at the age when most of her kindergarten classmates started kindergarten (yeah, we didn’t redshirt when everyone else did). She’s huge for her age. In Hanna Andersson, she’s in 130s, but I buy up to 140s, depending on the outfit. She’s about the same size I was at 8, and she’s only 5.5-6 shoe sizes behind adult-have-had-a-baby-me. But I am really so very tired of people asking me about her education. As soon as someone says, “You must be in second grade,” “what grade are you in,” “where do you go to school,” “do you like school?” I want to say something rude. The questions are innocent (usually). It’s just that the answer is complicated. Pea herself does a great…

Categories: Etiquette, Not crazy...yet, Routines, School

Hither and Thither

Posted on April 3rd, 2013

The mast had to come down. As sad as this was, watching how easily M dismantled the thing and lowered 30′ of metal pipe with an antenna on top with one piece of rope was pretty fucking amazing. He took it all in stride and has announced he has another plan. I really, really love Twice. (If you sign up with that link and buy something, you’ll get a $10 credit and so will I. So go thither!) In other exciting news, my jaw has been out of alignment for five days. This, by the way, hurts like a SOB. Also, I miss chewy food. Pea, on seeing me in a particular skirt, “That looks great! And when it shrinks, I can wear it!”…

Categories: Not crazy...yet, Routines, TMI

This year and 2013

Posted on December 29th, 2012

This year, I decided I would “get healthy.” To that end, I cooked more, watched what I ate, and lost 22 pounds, despite all the medical weirdness of this year. I have not exercised more, because unless it’s hiking, I pretty much hate exercise. (OK, running, but running by myself is boring.) Still, I want to lose at least 20 more, so that’s on the table for 2013. (If I lose 10 more, I unlock the wonders of my best wardrobe. It’s a powerful incentive!) This year, I read a lot. I set a modest Goodreads goal of 25 books and have read 40-something books. (To brag, I don’t read fluffy fiction. We’re talking mostly 400+ page nonfiction.) In 2013, I want to continue…

Categories: Not crazy...yet, Routines, Too much to ask?

Sloppy Joe cake and so much more (catching up)

Posted on November 30th, 2012

Actually, there isn’t much news. After learning about it from a friend, I made a sort of Sloppy Joe biscuit cake with biscuits in the bottom of a bundt pan, then sloppy joes (I used Quorn instead of meat, and it was good), and another layer of biscuits on top. Then cook for about 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. I used store-bought biscuits, because the whole point of the experiment was to find something that was insanely easy to make from things I could have on hand in the fridge. It was interesting and I liked it, but there was too much bread vs. Sloppy Joes. Still, Pea ate four bites of it, largely because… She wanted to eat cake. For some…

Categories: Eating, Epiphanies, Not crazy...yet, Reading, Routines, Writing

Life of a — well, not soccer — mom

Posted on November 13th, 2012

Today I took Pea to school, and did my park day duty. I learned that just one extra day of weekend makes a group of kids crazy-frantic compared to their normal level of activity. I’m sure the teachers are really (not) looking forward to the week after next, because the kids have ALL next week off, for conferences and then Thanksgiving holiday. Yeah. I’m sure the parents aren’t, either. Because a week of the kids at home will be…well, crazy. We are dealing with this thing where Pea spits. It’s disgusting. She’ll spit down on a stair from the top of the stairwell. It gets her grounded from a day of TV each time she does it. It’s so weird; it doesn’t seem to…

Categories: General Parenting, Routines, Writing

And then it was the end of the week, and yes, I said “bushtit.”

Posted on October 25th, 2012

Yeah, I don’t know how we got here, either. There was the sickness that was late Friday, all weekend, Monday, and Tuesday, and then the walking dead routine that was Wednesday and today. I had Pea home Monday and Tuesday and M home yesterday. The cold has gone from annoying sniffling/sneezing/exhaustion to sore throat/annoying cough/exhaustion. Progress… In the midst of this I have written little letters indicating I have done things in my notebook, so that must have happened, right? I have spent a lot of time watching the birds at the bird feeders. Today? Goldfinch, chestnut-backed chickadees, nuthatches, a flicker, Anna’s hummingbirds (we have dueling males and they are a kick), and my favorite because they’re so fun to say: bushtits. We continue…

Categories: Routines, Sick kid, Sick Mom

I must be feeling better

Posted on October 23rd, 2012

…because I did laundry, the dishes, and vacuumed (but only downstairs). I voted. Some of the ballot measures (oh, how I hate populism’s bastard stepchild, the modern initiative process) made no sense, but that’s fine. They usually don’t. I’m skipping the NyQuil. I ran out and got fast food for lunch (which, at the time, seemed like less effort than making a sandwich). Pea is much better and will be at school tomorrow (hooray). I finished a book. I started another book. And another book, because I don’t read one book at a time. I sat around. I got bored with being bored. On the down side, now M has the cold. But he voted, too, so hopefully he’s on the up and up.

Categories: Routines, Sick kid, Sick Mom

Reading, Writing, and Routines

Posted on October 4th, 2012

Sorry for my absence. My free time has been given over to writing and reading. On the writing front, a couple of months ago I decided to ditch my outline and go for a (physical) corkboard and index card system…and holy plotting epiphanies, Batman, but my output is crazy. It’s like it’s writing itself. I’m never writing without a corkboard again. For real. The spec fic is now mostly written and I am very happy with it, as much as I have ever been with a first draft. I wish I’d figured this out, oh, a year and a half ago, when I first started tinkering with this version of the story. On the reading front, I finished 1812: War with America (highly recommended)…

Categories: Reading, Routines, Writing

Ben Franklin Tracking Experiment, One Year Later

Posted on September 29th, 2012

Last year I started tracking what I was doing every day. I committed to doing it for a year, and, what’s more, I actually did track my activities for a year. It was valuable for several reasons. The first — the main — reason is for the sense of accomplishment. When I’m at home with a child, and doing the same dishes and the same laundry and cleaning the same rooms while trying to sneak a little work time in here and there — well, it’s frustrating and it’s hard to feel as if I’m making any progress. (Even when I was practicing in a firm where we didn’t log billables, I struggled to remember all the things I did in a day, and…

Categories: Routines