Category: Everyday

Things We Never Forget

Yesterday Ruthie told me she was writing a story at school about visiting her Auntie Jody’s farm in Iowa.

It was 2007 when we last visited the farm. Ruthie was only 4 years old, but she still carries the memory of that magical summer.

So do I.

We were on our way to the mall for some girl time when she told me this. She was chatty in the car, and I sadly realized how long it had been since we did something fun together, just the two of us.

I’m such a grouch at home, caressing my precious agenda.

I’m a lot more fun when we get out and Do Things, so I was glad to be at the mall with my big girl. She bought some new earrings and gave me fashion advice.

Apparently I need more heels, pencil skirts, and blazers in my life.

Out with the old…

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I took down the tree yesterday and gathered all the Christmas decorations from around the house. Today it will all be boxed up again and put in the attic, but for now my dining table looks like the holiday clearance section at Fred Meyer.

One of my favorite memories from this year was watching my kids play “house” in the tree branches with dolls, stuffed animals, Lego creations, and whatever else they could find. They also continued “decorating” the tree throughout the month, and I found all sorts of re-purposed craft supplies and kitchen items stuffed into or tied to the branches.

Despite all this manhandling, the intended tree decorations survived the kids, and only fell victim to the dog’s excessive tail wagging.

I woke up early this morning and spent some time evaluating my schedule & rearranging my priorities. I was too stressed out during 2010’s fourth quarter and needed to make some drastic changes.

I worked too much and exercised too little. I didn’t spend enough time planning, and flew by the seat of my pants. I was fueled by the adrenaline of the urgent.

So much of this was out of my control – which added to my stress – but I also didn’t say “no” as much as I should have and didn’t always rally in time to stay on top of things.

I definitely ended the year feeling exhaustion and burnout.

But here we are at January 2nd, and I already feel recharged and ready to tackle the year. I think it will be fun and full of adventure! Maybe that’s just the sun talking, but right now I feel ready for a big change, a cleanse, a renewal.

I commemorated the new year with a new about page. You can check it out here.

Inspired by Jose Cuervo and Florence & the Machine

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I’m a little crazed these days. I think I’ve had something on the calendar every night since the beginning of December, and that never goes over well with Introverts like me.

I’ve definitely hit a wall.

For me this looks like oversleeping, over eating, over drinking, and writing blog posts when I should be working or making dinner. These are the days you find me working in my pajamas and starting happy hour around 2pm.

Klassy.

Ironically, this is the first December in six years that I haven’t been depressed. Despite the work stress (good stress! busy! lots of clients!) and heavy social schedule, I don’t have a dark cloud following me around.

If I’m moping, it’s because I’m mopey, not because life has no meaning.

Hilariously, busy + stress + no depression = no Christmas planning*guiltless to the power of infinity.

Translation: have not sent Christmas cards and have not bought presents and have barely decorated my house and I am 100% okay with this. I am truly living in the moment, not embittered by failed expectations, and enjoying what the day bring IN THAT MOMENT.

And if you know me in person, you’ll know THIS IS NOTHING LIKE ME.

Hallelujah.

There comes a point when lounging around in your pajamas actually begins to hurt.

Right before Thanksgiving Bryan bought an Apple TV because he had to “study the interface for work.” Studying the marketplace is how we come by most of our technology at the ZugHaus.

Carpenters buy hammers, we buy gadgets.

The day after Thanksgiving I woke up with a sore throat that spiraled into a full blown head cold by noon. This took the fun out of having a pajama day. I want to spend the day in my pajamas because I choose to spend the day in my pajamas, not because I need to nap during a commute between the bed and the couch.

So the procurement of the Apple TV turned out to be a well timed investment, saving me from hours of channel surfing the likes of the WB and Hallmark.

It started innocently enough, streaming the series pilot of MI-5 from the BBC. I’m always up for a good spy drama, and the BBC puts out consistently fabulous entertainment.

I don’t think a person ever sets out to become an addict. They’re at a party one night & one of their jerk friends says, Hey, wanna snort a line? And if nothing particularly bad happens that night you may try again at the next party. And the next. And the next, until you’re sneaking it into work and snorting in the janitor’s closet during your lunch hour.

All this to say I could not stop watching MI-5. After about five episodes I began to get a twitch if 15 minutes went by and I wasn’t watching it.

I ended up blowing through 18 episodes in three days. That is an astounding 900 minutes – 15 hours – of television. To my credit, I couldn’t pour a cup of tea without feeling exhausted so it’s not like I would have been doing anything but watching tv anyway, so at least I was watching something decent.

But still. 15 hours.

And it was so much spy drama that I began to think with a British accent. And I said things to my kids like, “it’s proper protocol for you to take out the rubbish.”

One more sick day and I surely would have been given over to the madness.

But I’m grateful for my Apple TV nonetheless. It’s about the same cost as a TiVo (I think), but doesn’t require a monthly fee, and does so much more. Not only can I stream Netflix, YouTube, and Flickr, but it accesses everything on our home server like music and movies.

I may never leave my bed again.

Zug-O-Lanterns

thomas' pumpkin

The picture to the left is Thomas’ vision.

He was very concerned that Bryan could pull it off, given that it turned out a bit small in relation to the size of his pumpkin, and he was very adamant that the pumpkin have a pucker.

Bryan, of course, pulled it off with his eyes closed.

Ruthie's pumpkin

This is Ruthie’s pumpkin, based off her vision on the picture to the left.

Ruthie was a very demanding Creative Director and submitted many creative change orders after the design was already approved, such as substituting hair for eyelashes.

But she was nothing if not thorough in gutting her pumpkin.

The View From Here

Back yard

This is a working vacation for Bryan and I, so we’ve been swapping the kids back and forth every few hours so we can each check in on our projects.

Yesterday afternoon I sat in a comfy chair on the back patio looking at this view while I responded to all my emails from the day.

It was just starting to cool down after a 78 degree day.

Grandpa's camper

Earlier in the day I’d sequestered myself in the camper for a conference call – a perfect mobile office.

I really love that we can work remotely. It’s the only thing that’s even come close to influencing me in the direction of homeschooling. If we weren’t tied down to the school system, we could go anywhere and do anything whenever we wanted.

Well, if we had money, that is. But you get my point.

But alas, I am neither qualified to teach children, nor am I patient enough. So we’ll see how it goes while we’re here.

Jack Black, We Salute Thee.

We probably shouldn’t have watched School of Rock right before bed. And maybe the marshmallows were a bad idea. But Ruthie’s fits of giggles over Jack Black’s silliness was worth every minute of delayed bedtime.

And this encore presentation? Awesome.

I recommend you turn the volume down or your speakers might blow. Also, stick with it long enough to see Thomas’ dramatic slide at about 1:03.

kindergarten

thomas curiosity - filtered

I worried a little how Thomas would fare as one in a classroom of many.

He is full of questions about how things work, how they’re put together, how they came to be, and when he’s on a mission to discover the answers he will not let go until he has them.

With Thomas there is no “I don’t know.” He gets strangely obsessive about knowing things, and as a person who gives up easily I often wary of satiating his curiosity when it’s inconvenient to my agenda.

This worried me as he entered kindergarten, an environment where a teacher cannot devote twenty minutes to unraveling the secrets of how a flashlight works for just one student.

Ah, but I worried for naught.

We met recently with his teacher and her eyes lit up as she talked about how much she enjoyed him, how much she loved his think-outside-the-box ways. When I expressed worry over his excessive question-asking, she assured me his curiosity was a great example for the other students.

I heard many horror stories of public school as I raised my babies and prepared to send them out into the world, but I don’t know what I was so afraid of. Or maybe I’m just lucky. At any rate, I’m very grateful for our experiences so far.

Will the real curmudgeon please stand up?

There’s a running joke in the ZugHaus about spontaneity – I claim to have some when we all know I don’t.

For the longest time I pegged Bryan as a curmudgeonly old man with no flexibility or zest for the spontaneous. I just wanted to run! Be free! See what the day held!

But no, there had to be a plan.

Boo! Down with plans!

As the years went by, however, it became increasingly apparent that I was not as much spontaneous as I was a control freak. My desire wasn’t so much to be free to do what the day held, but free to do what I felt like doing right in that moment.

So if you were not me, and you had an idea, you were sooooo inflexible.

HAHAHAHA!

I now admit that the opposite is actually true. Bryan comes up with great adventures for weekend fun, while I scowl and sigh and whine about how all this fun is really gonna put me out because I HAD AN AGENDA!

Thankfully, though, I’m slowly getting over myself and Bryan is (usually) safe to tease me when I start to tick off all the Eeyore reasons why we can’t do whatever fun thing he’s planning.

Anyway, life is more fun when I let go of my agenda and follow Bryan into his great adventures – like this hike we went on a few weeks ago.

Things I observe when Getting Out

dangling cord

This is how people without kids live, with lamp cords dangling right there for anyone to reach. I find this fascinating.

Can you IMAGINE life with dangling cords? I certainly can’t.

I mean, when you’re gettin’ busy without the birth control you don’t really consider the possibility that you’d one day experience culture shock when entering a home with dangling lamp cords.

You see the lamp on your dresser and you think to yourself, lamps have cords. Period. No big deal. Why am I thinking about lamp cords while gettin’ busy?

But then you suddenly find yourself, years later, walking into a home with dangling lamp cords and a tingle ripples through your body that you can’t explain. Things look strangely out of place, and there’s a stillness in the air. It feels familiar, but in an alternate reality sort of way, like you’ve had this dream before.

And then it hits you – dangling lamp cords! You had one back in 1997! It was a beautiful clear glass lamp positioned precariously on a stand in the corner, and nowhere on the lamp shade did it say “pmodkyt” in brown marker.

As this memory heightens your senses you pull your cardigan a little tighter across your chest, hiding the grease spot where the french fry landed after your son threw it across the table; you set your bag down inconspicuously behind the chair – the bag that’s big enough to hold two water bottles, a container of fish crackers, and a change of clothes; you quickly run your fingers through your hair and wonder to yourself, Did I brush my hair this week?

And then the wine is poured, and the music is turned on, and someone greets you – the words make sense! You understand the words she is speaking! You realize all is well in the universe and the only thing separating You from Them is a silly lamp cord and an over-active imagination.