Staycation update

Well, the first day of our staycation was not a vacation at all. It was hard work. We uncluttered the house, cleaned up the yard, cleaned up the deck, refilled the birdfeeders, did laundry, paid bills, and generally put our affairs in order. It’s all the things and more that we’ve been meaning to do for a while, but didn’t find the time or energy to do. By the end of the day, my back was hurting, but things were in much better shape.

We hosted a sleepover guest for my daughter. That did force us to order pizza for dinner. At least after all that work, we didn’t have to cook and clean up the kitchen after dinner.

Our daughter Zoe is turning ten years old on August 3. Where has that time gone? As dutiful parents, we have been trying to organize a birthday party for her. She wanted a sleep over with all her friends, and a traditional birthday party with streamers and balloons, and naturally a big cake.

Alas, most of her friends are actually away on real vacations. My guess is that the bad economy hasn’t hit the well-heeled crowd of Chapel Hill, NC. So, we’re taking her available friends throughout the week for smaller get-togethers. Last night, we had a sleepover, today a visit to Kanki, a local Japanese restaurant, tomorrow a trip to the museum, a trip to the water park, plan to see a movie later in the week, and maybe another sleep over. Phew! A weeklong birthday is more work and more fun for all.

Happy (week-long) Birthday, Zoe!

Flying solo at the library

Last night, my kind husband brought the kids to their swimming lesson. They take swimming on Monday and Wednesday night at our neighborhood pool. I went on Monday, dragged my visiting mother along, and we sweated for over an hour. During swim lessons, nobody else is allowed in the pool.

With this nice bit of freedom, I went to the Chapel Hill library BY MYSELF for only the second time since we moved here four years ago. Going to the library solo is such a gift. I was able to browse, look up several books that I've been meaning to read, and actually read at the library. I returned all but three books, extended the three that are outstanding, paid off our overdue fees, and replaced my card with the nifty key-chain version. It's amazing what simple pleasures there are to be had.

Soccer Mom

Owen and Zoe have joined the local soccer team. They have caught on pretty well with the basics of the game.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Well, I am now officially a Soccer Mom. We have the house in the suburbs. We have the mini-van. We have the two soccer playing kids.

Zoe cuts Owen's birthday cake

Here's some footage of Owen after he blew out his candles. There are days when Zoe is such a little kid, and others when she shows her maturity. I think this shows how grown up she is becoming. Fittingly, this was at her little brother's party.

The kids had their faces painted at the Purim celebration at our temple. It was a nice way to celebrate Owen's birthday.

Since he was sick the previous week, and Bob became and continues to be very sick with pneumonia, it's been a tough couple weeks. Bob is still quite sick now. As a result, we could not plan a big birthday party for Owen.

When I was about six or seven, I remember the entire family was sick for my mid-January birthday more than once. I remember my mom pulling out a frozen cherry pie for one birthday. That was a big huge disappointment. It was certainly not what I wanted.

Another year when I turned ten my birthday was missed again. I brattishly insisted that my name be added to my sister Leesa's cake. Her birthday is a month after mine in February. We had the bakery lady to pipe in pink frosting: "Happy Birthday Sue-Lee!" The bakery lady asked us if the recipient was Chinese.

Our recent visit to Boston

A few weeks ago, I took my kids to Boston to visit my family. My dad's health is not doing well, so it was nice to see him.

My sister Marianne was very generous to buy us all tickets. We spent time with her and her boyfriend. My kids were very excited about the snow and her dogs.

We went to the aquarium together. It was hard to manage Owen there. My sister doesn't have kids, and she was surprised by my two. She offered to bring them to an orphanage. They are a handful to say the least.

We went to Tricia and Mick's house next. It was great to see them and their amazing baby Ian. Zoe had a great time playing mommy with Ian.



I left the kids with family for a night on the town. Four of us went out to the theater. It was very nice to do something adult for a change.

We took the kids on the subway. Owen loves trains so it was a special treat for him. It's amusing to me that my kids are such country bumpkins. I grew up in the city and my mom didn't drive until I was 10. She used to take us "downtown" on the bus and subway.

We went to have lunch at my friend Christine's place. She lives in the finacial district near the waterfront. Owen climbed on their sofa, tried to jump out the window, licked their windows, and nearly broke their blinds. Luckily, my kids didn't break anything. It wasn't for lack of trying. We walked to the Children's Museum. My kids were pretty rotten, and my friend who also has no kids was very tollerant. Very.

We had a family birthday party with cake and candles. The cake was amazing, from my favorite Boston bakery.

It was nice to see everyone and have a few days back home.

Happy New Year to all

First, we want to wish our friends and family a very Happy New Year. 2008 is going to be a great year. I'm sure of it.

We had quiet holidays spending time with the kids and resting. We snuck in some work too. We caught up with a stuff in the house. Since Bob is self-employed he has lots of trouble slowing down.

Bob worked too much and we squabbled about it. The kids alternated between being very demanding or becoming zombies by television. We rented DVDs and tried to fit in some time outside when it wasn't raining. We limit them to 1/2 hour or less a day with more on the weekends. It's just not feasible on a very wet long winter break.

We did more cooking and eating than usual. We made some treats and some traditions. We made Latkes to instill the tradition even though neither of my kids like them. We made cookies and brownies--big surprise--they do like them. I made a few experimental journeys in the kitchen. Thanks to Cooks Illustrated, I learned how to make French Onion Soup from scratch and Almost No-Knead Bread. The soup was amazing and I will make it again. The bread was still too much fuss for me. Since bakeries with good bread abound, it is better to leave bread to the professionals.

We caught up on some reading and crafting. The kids did some painting with watercolors and of course I knit. I'm catching up on several projects and trying to resist starting new ones. Even so, I started a simple Aran vest for Owen. I'm nearly done with the back. And, Zoe is really enjoying the Harry Potter books. She is deep into book five.

Bob & I celebrated the anniversary of our marriage in style with two kids in tow at a local fish restaurant. No, it was not romantic, but at least we were together. We will have many more with just the two of us. Our kids will have their own agendas. For now it's the awesome foursome.

Of course there were some missing things, first we missed all of you. And, we wished for snow. Even though we desperately need the rain here, we were sad that it didn't snow.

Happy New Year

 

New Hope Valley Railway & Bob's wrist

Last weekend we all went on a New Hope Valley Railway Train ride. It was a blast for Owen. We all were glad we went, but Owen was thrilled. He wanted to go back the next day.
I've always been a fan of trains and train travel. Over the years, I've read a several of Paul Theroux's train travel books. It is amazing how noisy, messy, smelly and slow steam trains are. Reading about it is much nicer than actually doing it.

On a different note, Bob had surgery on his wrist today. He had a nasty rebuild of his bones and tendons due to a bad Ganglion cyst. It went pretty well, but it was more involved than they expected. This is the second surgery for this condition, so we're hoping it works this time. He's not supposed to work or drive for 10 days. Right, like that's going to happen. And, He'll need a cast for 6 weeks. Mercy, it's going to be a tough ten days. He's pretty loopy on the pain meds. He keeps asking me the same questions over and over again. The most frequent questions are about whether or not the surgeon was confident, or did he get it all? Go to sleep now, Bob. Thank you, Percosets.

Ian! the cherub

Ian is SO CUTE! We wanted to keep him. Zoe and I tried to hide him when his parents were packing up the car. We hid him amonst my yarn. He was pretty quiet, and it took them a while to find him. I wasn't even upset when he spit up all over my yarn!

Teach them well

Zoe spent half of her summer vacation at a sports camp swimming and ice skating. She spent the rest of the summer at the ArtsCenter doing dramatic and crafty arts. It seems that the dramatic arts have set in well.

A while ago, I was dropping Zoe off at a birthday party. On the short drive to the other child's house, I spent the time reminding Zoe to be polite, to say happy birthday, to remember to say please and thank you, and all the usual mom stuff.

A couple hours later, when I picked her up from the party, I asked her how it went. She said it was great that she had a fun time. Then, I asked her if she had followed my instruction to be polite and say happy birthday, please, thank you, etc. She said, "Sorry mom, I forgot my lines."

Oh happy day

Yesterday was Zoe's 9th birthday. And today we are welcoming my sister Tricia and her husband Mick's new son to our family.

He was born in the wee hours of the morning. We don't know his name yet.

We're all thrilled and happy to have a new cousin/nephew. Good job Mick and Tricia. We're packing our bags and heading to Boston. We can't wait to meet him.

Carrboro Elementary School Fair

Zoe and Owen became tigers at the school fair. We had a fun time, but the weather was not good.

Owen is difficult to manage at things like this. He runs off and gets lost in the crowd. We lost him at least eight times.

We spent the whole day and a lot of money to support our school. I took pictures for the school newsletter, The Carrboro Chalkboard. You can download a PDF from the school website. I'm pretty happy with the results.

T.V. time

 

There is an ongoing struggle between the parents and the kids in our home. The struggle can get pretty ugly at times. They want more T.V. time, and we want them to have less. As you can see from these pictures, they are transfixed by T.V.

We do place strict limits on T.V. time because these kids would watch T.V. all day if we let them. We try to limit them to a half an hour a day on school nights. In fact, there's lots of nights with none because we run out of time.

It's a bit of a struggle with the adults too. I enjoy many programs. Bob doesn't watch ANY. So, I'm the bad influence on the kids. Lately we've been watching a stunning series on the Discovery channel. Planet Earth show. For years, I've enjoyed watching the PBS Nature show. As he passes by, Bob just groans, "Oh, no, more sea otters!"

On the weekends, I have started a tradition of Saturday movie night. I enjoy movies and want to have some fun traditions with my kids. Since most of the movies are animation or other mind-numbing, rated-G ilk, I get in some reading or take up my knitting.

We've recently started using REDBOX $1 per night DVD rentals. So easy, cheap and good, I dropped Netflicks. As we say in Boston, they are wicked pissa.

So, we rent a movie, we make popcorn, and we have some T.V. time.

Don't be angry. Don't be busy. Don't be sad.

Owen is learning language at a gallop. And, he now carefully studies facial expressions to get a sense of your mood.

On Saturday, he was begging for my attention while I was trying to read. I was not responsive enough for him. He tugged on my shirt and said,"Help me now." When I didn't respond he said, "Don't be angry, don't be busy, don't be sad." Now those are words to live by.

Carrboro Farmers' Market

Today we visited the Carrboro Farmer's Market.

We bought garden plants, cut flowers, cheese, eggs and pork. Zoe and Owen were thrilled with the pussy willows. We just had to buy a bunch of them. I remember loving pussy willows when I was a kid. I remember stroking their fuzzy tips. They grew in a neighbor's yard. We were always excited when they bloomed in the early spring.

I grew up a city kid. We used to take drives to the country to pick apples or buy pumpkins. We didn't know or understand about locally-raised produce or local farms. Our food came from the supermarket in plastic bags.

Now, I appreciate local produce and crafts. I try to visit the market with my kids at least once a month. And, we go on the farm tour, and try to grow some herbs and vegetables. It's all a part of why we moved here to improve the quality of our life.

101st post

My last post was my 100th post. I meant to mark the occasion but I couldn't come up with anything clever. Then a lot of time lapsed. And, now I'm ranting again.

The reasons are many, and typical. My doctor had me worried for three weeks about some blood work. I had some nasty, brutal dental work with more to come. I got stressed out from that and then got sick. I enrolled in yet another computer class (Dreamweaver). My new job is harder. The book club I joined is reading interesting books that I feel compelled to read.

My kids are being extra difficult. Owen is screaming all the time. He's waking up screaming about missing blankets and scary monsters in his room. Zoe is having trouble with school. She avoids and deliberately looses her homework every week.

I had to go on a stressful, freezing business trip to New York City. The average temp was 12 degrees with a terrible wind bring it to -12 degrees. Even though I'm from Boston, I can't remember ever being so cold. And, my return flight was a nightmare. The plane was broken, and we had to get off, wait, wait, wait and wait. Then rush to another airport and try to get home. That flight was full, and then delayed. Are you surprised to learn that I threw up on the plane, and in the parking garage, and again in my car? (Their barf bags do work surprisingly well.)

And, my husband is working too much, and traveling more. Oy vey!

Of course, the things that I drop are exercising, sleeping, blogging, and knitting...not necessarily in that order. Just all the things that I do to help me relax.

Winter's back

Baby, it's cold outside.

Don't open that cage!

Owen is in love with Zoe's hamster. He thinks that the hamster is a mouse.

"the mouse"

Owen loves Zoe's hamster. He calls him the mouse.

He drags his step stool from the bathroom up to Zoe's bureau to see the hamster. He tries to open the cage and pokes his fingers in.

Don't open that cage, Owen!

Here's some footage on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/v/vBw79qEZ33M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmu81t78Zks

My Thanksgiving

I also didn't get a chance to express my gratitude, so here's my thanks:

First, my husband-- a man I am blessed to have in my life. My children-- I am so lucky to have both of them. As the circle widens: I am thankful for my parents and siblings. I miss them all the time. And, I'm grateful for our old and new friends, and our growing community.

On a global level, I thank the courageous people who work for peace and social justice, those who work to protect our civil rights and liberties, and those who help the powerless.

I'm thanful for the simple pleasures of life. I stop and smell the roses now.

I am thankful for those of you who read Dot Com Family and provide comments and encouragement. So, thank you. Thank you very much.