Category: Everyday

Back on Track? (pun intended)

I blew off everything I was planning to do this morning (no catastrophic surprise there) to hit the Monotonous Machine of Monotony in our basement. I wanted to test the pain in my foot after seven days of medication and a month and a half of no-impact exercise no exercise.

I forgot how much I love to sweat.

I forgot how much I love filling my lungs to capacity.

I forgot how much easier music penetrates through the noise when exercising.

I forgot how profitable exercise is to my creative mind.

I’m not sure my foot is ready for running again, but I will hit the Monotonous Machine of Monotony again on Monday.

Works for Me: a flashlight worth buying

waterlight flashlight.jpgI wish I could take back all the money I’ve spent on flashlights for the kids. They get dropped, and the light bulb breaks. They get thrown into the pool, and won’t turn on. The batteries die, and I gotta buy more. I was totally DONE with flashlights, until Bryan discovered this one on Amazon.com.

It’s waterproof. It has a durable LED light. It’s battery-less, and cranks for power. Hello! Obviously built for preschool boys.

We picked up a couple for the kids, and they love them. Now if only it were loss-proof. Anybody seen a flashlight?

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Visit Rocks In My Dryer for other Works for Me Wednesday posts.

Works for Me: Lost Child Plan

We spent the Fourth of July in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle listening to some good local music, then went down the sculpture gardens to watch the Elliot Bay fireworks with some friends. It was the first time we had taken the kids to one of the major fireworks shows, and I knew it was going to be a long day surrounded by hundreds of people.

works for me badge 2Earlier in the week I’d lost Thomas at an open air produce stand. He wandered off while I was paying the cashier, and as I waited for her to return my debit card I casually looked around for him, fully expecting him to be just a few feet off. I couldn’t see him, and started sweeping in wider circles with my eyes, and when I still couldn’t see him I told the cashier I’d lost my son. She paged him and called someone to help me while Ruthie and I trotted around the produce tables, hearing murmurs of a lost boy among the other customers.

Finally the cashier flagged me down and shouted, “He’s down there!” and pointed to the gardening end of the store. I ran down there and found him immediately. He had a shopping basket in the crook of his elbow and was smelling flowers.

I think he may have only been separated from me five minutes – perhaps a little longer – but it was just enough time for me to imagine he was gone forever. When Ruthie run off there is usually somewhere she wants to be, and she goes with gusto. If I can figure out where that is, I can find her. But Thomas? He’s a wanderer. He just wanders. With no direction, purpose, or destination. When he wanders off I have no idea where to look.

So in preparation of spending the entire day surrounded by a mob of people, I laid down the ground rules for my three and five year old. First, stay within site. Second, don’t go anywhere – even to the other parent across the lot – without first asking the parent you’re with.

We then talked about what to do if they did get lost. I gave them each one of my blog cards which has my cell phone number on it, and stuck it in their pockets. I said if they couldn’t find me or Bryan, they should find a police officer or another mommy with kids, give them the card in their pocket, and ask them to call me. We went over it many times. We talked about what a police officer is wearing. We talked about the definition of “mommy with kids,” and why they were safer to approach than a different person.

It’s not a foolproof plan, and it didn’t make me any less alert. But teaching my kids how to protect and take care of themselves? That works for me.

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Visit Rocks in My Dryer for other Works for Me Wednesday posts.

First Fourth

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2003 was our first Fourth of July as parents. It was also Bryan’s first paid holiday in nearly his entire working life, having lived the high life of a freelancer until I got knocked up with Ruthie. It was the first time I’d ever seen him relax – like, REALLY relax – because he wasn’t thinking about all the money he wasn’t earning that day by not working, or all the all the future business he wasn’t funneling into the pipeline.

Five years later Bryan lost weight, I’ve gained weight, and I have a new growth attached to my hip who goes by the name, Thomas. Also? Ruthie still makes this face when she’s pissed at me. And at bedtime. And when I cut her off at three bowls of cereal.

works for me wednesday: the five ingredients or less edition

Remember the snack drawer idea I wrote about? It was a total bust. The kids would eat half of what was in their drawer, then whine and moan and complain that they didn’t want what was left, that they wanted something else.

When I realized the snack drawer was causing more drama than it was worth, I gave up on it. But still, with the “I’m hungry” all the time!

Recently I started having lunch every week with a friend, and we switch off watching each other’s kids for a few hours after. She often serves the kids a buffet style meal – a big platter with lots of veggies, hummus, fruit, and quesadilla triangles or PB&J squares. My kid love it, and I love it, so I adapted it to our snack routine.

Mid morning I may put out some fruit, cheese, and hard boiled eggs:

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In the afternoon I put out mostly veggies, with a little hummus to dip into:

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When friends come over I put out favorites, like grapes, carrots, and pretzels:

snack time

This has been a peaceful solution to the snack problem. If they don’t eat it all, I stick the plate in the refrigerator until they’re hungry again. And because these are healthy foods, they can eat as much as they want, and I don’t have to worry about them spoiling their appetite for the next meal.

Also? If they’ve had an entire snack of veggies, it makes me less pushy about eating a veggie at dinner. And THAT works for me.

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Visit Rocks in my Dryer for other Works for Me Wednesday posts.

the occurrance of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way

Yesterday I took my kids to the park in the late afternoon (the benefit of a crock pot dinner!), one that is located next to a lake. At one point they lost interest in me and hung out at the top of the Big Toy with other kids, so I sat down on a bench at the perimeter.

Suddenly I heard a familiar sound, one that caused all sound and vision to fade into a long ago time, and for just a moment I was standing on the path at Wood Lake Nature Center near my childhood home in Minnesota.

The sound I heard was of a Red-Winged Blackbird, a beautiful jet black bird with vibrant red “shoulders,” and I saw it flitting from tree to tree just to my left. I smiled. I don’t know why I’ve been thinking so much about Home lately, but I’m thankful for these small reminders of my childhood.

It’s a mystery to me how memory works. As a child I didn’t intentionally stop to catalog all the smells and sounds around me – I didn’t have any sense of time or future then. Yet when I hear the deep and hollow hoo hoo-ing of a morning dove, I’m instantly sent back into the deep crevices of my mind, snuggled in my bed on a Saturday morning, irritated at the hoo hoo-ing for waking me up too early.

I’ve never thought about the Red-Winged Blackbird in all the eighteen (!!!) years that I’ve lived in Seattle, and I never would have guessed they even existed here. In fact, had I not seen in flying past the Big Toy I wouldn’t have even known what I was listening to.

Thank you, Jesus, for serendipity.

Works for Me: The “Mom, I’m bored!” Edition

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Rocks in My Dryer is hosting a themed WFMW this week to collect ideas for keeping kids busy during the summer. Never mind that the entire rest of the country is now on Summer vacation while Seattle kids continue through most of June.

Since my kids are still preschool age, I feel like I need the “Mom, I’m bored!” edition every day. But I did get this great idea from a book of activities, and my kids love it. Give a kid a paint brush and a cup of water, and he’s occupied for half an hour (that’s a long time for a preschooler, by the way). Today I had three extra kids over, and they were all out there “painting” my deck.

Hey, it works for me.

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Check out all the great ideas here.

It’s Business Time

Things are backing up here at This Pile because I’ve been busy living life, which is what we all hope for, right? So here are a few things I need to update you on:

  • My blog peeps gone done me proud. When Zoe’s dad, Paul, thanked me for taking on this fund raiser for a laptop, I reassured him I had no idea how it would turn out, that I could very well be handing him a check for thirty-five bucks when all is said and done. But you? You, Internet, made me cry. You raised $1,065 for the Faultner family, and I can’t even imagine how I could thank you for your participation in this. As soon as I figure out how to get Paypal to shake out all that money into my piggy bank, they will have their laptop. I’ll keep you posted.
  • As promised, everyone who donated will be receiving a CD mix from me, so hopefully you all added legit addresses to the paypal transaction. The winner of the random drawing for a t-shirt from Mommy Needs a Cocktail, is (drum roll….) Jenny! I’ll email you about how to get that, darlin’.
  • And lastly, the winner of the random drawing for my last Muxtape is Elisabeth! Be looking for that in the mail next week. As for the rest of you, the bad news is Muxtape experienced a database error that deleted this mix online, so you actually can’t listen to it anymore. The good news is, I’ll be posting a new mix on Sunday, so be sure to check back in!

Works for Me: Do the next thing.

Works for me WednesdayBryan says this to me all the time, and it usually makes me want to pull his hair out. It makes me want to pull his hair out because by the time he gets the opportunity to say this to me, I’m already in some sort of panic stricken state about a large Pile of Things Left Undone, and I hardly know where to begin.

And I don’t know about you, but when I get into a panic stricken state over a deadline or a huge Pile of Things Left Undone, I need you to tell me what I want to hear, and I need you to do it yesterday, and I need you to do it without the commentary. I am like Hammy, the crazy squirrel from Over the Hedge, zipping around with my screechy voice, wondering where all the nuts are.

This is not the Way of Bryan.

Bryan is calm. He is collected. He is rational. And he always says to me, “Baby, just do the next thing.”

I’m getting to be this way, slowly, and usually not of my own accord. I still need someone (ahem, Bryan) to tell me to slow down and just do the next thing.

And by the time I sheepishly pick his torn tufts of hair up off the ground, I usually have a clue what that Next Thing might be.

Hey, it works for me.

works for me: babysitting co-op

Works for me WednesdayBryan and I have participated in a babysitting co-op for date night since our oldest (now age 5) was just two months old. This has been great for our budget, and awesome for our kids, who basically get to have or go to a slumber party every weekend.

We’ve done a co-op with several different families over the years, but we have been doing our current swap with the same family for at least three years. We’ve each added one more baby to the mix since we started, for a total of five kids.

There are many ways to do a co-op – and you can comment below if you want me to send you more ideas – but the way we’ve done it is for the couple going out on a date to drop their kids off with the couple babysitting after or around dinner time. The kids get to play together or watch movies, then everyone gets put to bed. Couple #1 gets a healthy chunk of time alone before coming back to get the kids around ten or eleven.

Bryan and I have gone to concerts, movies, baseball games, parties – there’s a lot you can fit into five or six hours. Often we choose to go out of Friday nights, and I’ll drive up to his office in Seattle to pick him up after dropping the kids off. One evening a co-worker passed by my car in the parking lot while I waited, and stooped down to say hello to the kids. His eyebrows popped up when seeing they weren’t in the car…again… and he said, “You guys are really good with the babysitter thing, aren’t you?!”

friendsDamn straight!

Also, it’s just as fun to plan activities for the kids on the nights we babysit. In the winter we watch movies and eat popcorn. Now that the weather’s improving we’ll play outside, walk to the park, or venture down to the cupcake shop. Bryan has also been known to get remote control airplanes “for the kids.”

Our every-other-week date night is not something I take for granted. I’m thankful for it every time we get a chance to go out because I know not every married couple with kids gets out as much as we do. In fact, I often feel spoiled. We don’t have family near enough to keep our kids on a regular basis, so this arrangement has been a life saver for our relationship and for my sanity.

Go set one up now!

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For other Works for Me posts, check out the links at Rocks in My Dryer.

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Ruthie and Zoe-croppedTo find out how you can help this little girl’s family get the laptop they need, click here.

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And don’t forget about the drawing for a copy of my latest Muxtape! Contest extended until Thursday at noon.

Sometimes I think I’m just a little bit insane.

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No, this is not a birthday party. Nor do I run a daycare (which a police officer once asked me when he saw three kids of varying shades of skin playing in the yard with my blondies). This is just the sort of thing I do to myself on a regular basis: a pool party with six kids under the age of five. Or wait – is that one six already? I think so. Six under the age of SIX, then. But still.

Ever since I was a kid I wanted a big family. Maybe as a practically-only child I fantasized about large families, but even as an adult married woman, I still thought I would birth a baseball team of boys. Then I actually HAD kids, and then I had postpartum depression, and now I nearly have the youngest out of diapers.

I can’t imagine doing that all over again.

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Yet, I find myself with a house full of kids – or at least one extra – at least twice a week, sometimes more often. I’ve always imagined being the house on my block where all my kids’ friends come to play, my refrigerator and pantry filled with snacks to share, plenty of games on the Wii and other interesting things to make it so my kids and their friends like to be here.

Maybe six kids under six for dinner and a pool party on a record-breaking hot day is practice for ten teenagers who choose to come here after school rather than the mall? I admit I’m a romantic. My friends with teenagers can tell me how it really is, but I guess I’m learning I like a little bit of high level chaos as long as they all go home at some point and let me recuperate before the next wave of chaos.

But I get to keep these two forever. Which is nice, because they’re both just a little bit crazy like me.

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Works for me: stair baskets

Works for me Wednesday

There are many benefits of living in a multiple story house, such as letting the kids sleep in the main floor play room while you and the husband have uninterrupted… sleep… upstairs.

That definitely works for me.

What doesn’t work for me is the potential for running up and down the stairs 20 times in an hour, particularly when I’m trying to get things straightened up. While I’m aware that stair climbing would provide a great boost for my weight loss and exercise goals, it also provides a certain amount of… how shall we say? … opportunity for the dynamic duo to reach the candy jar on top of the refrigerator.

I kept thinking to myself, If only I had some sort of storage receptacle that would fit on the stairs to neatly contain my junk clutter things until the next time I went up. Then one day I rounded the corner at my local Goodwill and saw this eager-to-please basket on a shelf with so many ordinary baskets.

She may not be as pretty as this one, but she’s about $58 cheaper… and that works for me.

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Check out Works for Me Wednesday host, Rocks in my Dryer, for more Works for Me posts. Also? You should check out the really cool badge on this post if you can’t see it in your feed reader.