I love reading stories about women in science and the unique hurdles they had to overcome to get to where they are today. The American Chemical Society posted a link to these articles from a Fairbanks, Alaska newspaper for Women in Science month.
I am now – amazingly – in that “mid-career” category. Not a newbie by any amount. I have been around the block once or twice. I am still young enough that I went into science in college thinking equality was in. Men had grown up or moved on. I was a professional product of the 90’s. YES, the 90’s. But still my stories aren’t too far off from the women who shared in these articles who have more experience than me.
Do I think things are changing? YES. I hosted a student last year who was a chemical engineer from Yale and one of my most memorable conversations with her was after one of our big team meetings for the Navy project. We left and I can’t remember how she put it, but she was surprised. “They are all guys,” she exclaimed. And went on to tell me that all her classes were at least 50-50.
My hallway at work is estrogen lane. There are 13 offices in my hallway and all but two are occupied by women.
My team lead? A woman. My manager? A woman. I love it!
Because in my daily activities? The projects I work on daily and the people I work with?
All men.
And that is how it has been since I started here. No joke. Now I am a physical scientist with a little more engineering and physics to my chemistry life, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. Where are the women?
I liked the questions posed to these women scientists in Alaska and figured I would take it upon myself to answer them. If you are a woman in science, answer them in the comments, e-mail your answers to me and I will post them here in my blog or post the answers on your blog and provide me the link, okay?
“Were there more hurdles for you to clear in science because you were a woman?” (Ok, poorly written question, “are” they ARE women, they aren’t men now…)
I don’t believe there were more hurdles to clear education-wise because I am a woman. I believe that I had every opportunity presented to me as an undergrad and grad student in the 90’s based on the path I chose. Now I did reject one school after I had a very disheartening visit. I visited on the same day as another male potential graduate student at Colorado State and professors took him out to lunch – at the same place that the female graduate student assigned to take me out, took me. Later when I asked the department head if I would have an opportunity to teach upper division chemistry, he told me that female TA’s were not well received by the student body. I ran the other way. Once I was settled in a great program I experienced little gender disconnect. In my first year, I was teaching an upper division lab class. I should note that I went to a school with a very young faculty and with (gasp) three female faculty members.
I believe that I had a few more hurdles in the workplace than I had in education as a women. When I signed on as a post-doc, my mentor made sure to get me a p-card immediately, so I could place the teams' orders and I worked editing their reports and pulling their presentations together. I was a glorified admin. When I was in the lab and the guys walked in they would say, “hi honey, I am home” and the like. The team I was hired into was very unfriendly to women and when I started asking around the other women nodded and one even said that the whole group was shocked when this team brought a woman post-doc on. In order to advance I had to pick myself up, meet others, prove myself to others and make a name for myself. The guys who came in the same time as me were being paraded around like princes while I was struggling to get someone to give me the time of day.
“Has public perception changed about women scientists?”
Yes, I had the student last summer who as a senior had never encountered anything less than 50% female student body. I never had anything close to 50% women in my classes at a very liberal college. But this is college, in the workplace I think there is a ways to go.
Today, I am working in project management and I recently had an incident with a coworker that was not happy with me. Some of the things he said, and the analogies he made to our managers lead me to sit and wonder if he would have said these things of a man sitting across the table from him. I am quite positive not. I think (large stereotype here) "older" men are not afraid to challenge a woman in the workplace more on her knowledge or leadership abilities. There seems to be a perception that you have to be a ball breaker to move up, act like a man, don’t bring your femininity, but these are the same things that are frowned upon when we look up to women who have made it. I work quite well with men in the same general age group as myself. My Gen-X counterparts get it. They are the ones pulling double duty with their wives in child rearing and who have heard their wives come home with tales like mine. I tend to think that they would never treat a woman in a way they wouldn’t want their wives treated. Older generations (complete generalization here) their wives didn’t work in technical fields and many never worked at all. They don't have that same thought process or female professors or mentors to draw upon that the Gen X'ers did.
“Have there been hurdles you have faced that a man would not have faced?”
Getting exposure. When I first started as a post-doc so often it was assumed I was an admin assistant. I will claim that it is all about who you know. There are men here that are afraid to know a woman. Many deals are brokered over lunch, but many men are afraid to go have lunch with a female colleague – at least outside of a group. It presents a Catch-22. I work with a woman who told me about asking a manager to have dinner with her one night. She was married, he was married. She had some technical questions she wanted to pose and suggested they grab a bite to eat. He was so taken aback that he actually mentioned to her “sexual harassment”. Would this happen with two guys? No, they would go grab a beer at the local sports bar.
Another aspect, I went through a spell there working for a manager whose wife had never worked out of the home. The realities I faced with being a working mom with a newborn were foreign to him and he pretty much chalked me up as a whiner and told me there was no reason I couldn’t pump in the bathroom. When I pointed out there were no outlets he told me to get a battery pack. While I was out on my first maternity leave I had my first proposal funded. He handed it off to a man in my group citing he, “didn’t know what I wanted to do when I came back from leave”. He also never asked.
“What would you tell a girl who is contemplating a career in science?”
To find a good mentor at every stage. And by mentor I don’t mean manager – they have their own interests at heart in what they want you to do. Find someone you can talk freely to about what you want to do with your career. I wish I would have had more mentors in my career. Bachelors and then Masters or PhD so often is the given in science, but a mentor will be able to make suggestions based off experience, what do you really need to get where you want? What is the reality of academic positions? What if you love science, but wonder if there are other opportunities than standing in the lab? I have learned in the last few years that I have a propensity for management and business development. There are times when, despite the fact that this is what I want to be doing, I wonder if I am wasting my Ph.D. as I interact with managers sporting MBAs? The closest thing I have to a mentor right now (I am getting a new one in May) has told me no way, that in his product line he values highly technical managers. But just maybe, had I had someone early on in deciding what my career was going to be like and what life I wanted, maybe someone would have pointed me another way?
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Sunday, April 03, 2011
April Goals Update
When I declared way back when what my goals were for the month of April, I had blinders on. I admit it. They are really, really big blinders and when I held my head exactly straight, they worked. They worked so that I could totally ignore my daughter's bedroom.
She has serious, serious bedroom issues. Mostly in that she has too much stuff. Then she has less organizational storage and third she is a little tornado. By the time pick up night comes on Wednesday, all her stuff tends to get stuffed in big plastic bins and shoved off to the side.
Then AB vigorously and ruthlessly whipped my blinders off when I happily announced I was going to orgnize the coat closet and laundry room.
"What really needs to be done is Skadi's room," he mumbled.
"But I was going to wait until an Ikea trip so that I could organize at the same time!" I argued truthfully. I had actually been browsing the Ikea website to get ahead of the game for the yet to be planned trip to an Ikea.
He then pointed out that a ton of stuff in her room could be thrown away, pulled out and donated or whatever. She doesn't need it, he said while referring mostly to the stacks upon stacks of books.
"But she likes the board books," I argued.
"She likes EVERY book. If the board books aren't there she will happily choose some of the others here that actually tell a story," he argued.
I sighed. Apparent that an Ikea trip was not in my immediate future and that my blinders were now broken. AB knows me well, once he breaks my blinders, I can no longer tell myself there is no problem.
So this weekend AFTER I took care of the coat closet, I started in one corner of Skadi's bedroom and worked through her room systematically through it and even tackled portions of her closet. We moved the big soft rocker out of her room, that we use to rock her to sleep in (before Skadi, it was Leif's, sigh... ). Well then it just served as the time out chair. Then it housed a mountain of stuffed animals. Not that the time outs went by the wayside of course...
We did it. I pulled out a huge stack of board books. I hauled off a full garbage bag full of c.r.a.p. We now have a plastic bucket overflowing with stuffed animals, a new small toybox from Target that will double as a bench and a treasure chest of dress up clothes.
Phew! Two for one weekend. My house is well on its way to an organized bliss!
She has serious, serious bedroom issues. Mostly in that she has too much stuff. Then she has less organizational storage and third she is a little tornado. By the time pick up night comes on Wednesday, all her stuff tends to get stuffed in big plastic bins and shoved off to the side.
Then AB vigorously and ruthlessly whipped my blinders off when I happily announced I was going to orgnize the coat closet and laundry room.
"What really needs to be done is Skadi's room," he mumbled.
"But I was going to wait until an Ikea trip so that I could organize at the same time!" I argued truthfully. I had actually been browsing the Ikea website to get ahead of the game for the yet to be planned trip to an Ikea.
He then pointed out that a ton of stuff in her room could be thrown away, pulled out and donated or whatever. She doesn't need it, he said while referring mostly to the stacks upon stacks of books.
"But she likes the board books," I argued.
"She likes EVERY book. If the board books aren't there she will happily choose some of the others here that actually tell a story," he argued.
I sighed. Apparent that an Ikea trip was not in my immediate future and that my blinders were now broken. AB knows me well, once he breaks my blinders, I can no longer tell myself there is no problem.
So this weekend AFTER I took care of the coat closet, I started in one corner of Skadi's bedroom and worked through her room systematically through it and even tackled portions of her closet. We moved the big soft rocker out of her room, that we use to rock her to sleep in (before Skadi, it was Leif's, sigh... ). Well then it just served as the time out chair. Then it housed a mountain of stuffed animals. Not that the time outs went by the wayside of course...
We did it. I pulled out a huge stack of board books. I hauled off a full garbage bag full of c.r.a.p. We now have a plastic bucket overflowing with stuffed animals, a new small toybox from Target that will double as a bench and a treasure chest of dress up clothes.
Phew! Two for one weekend. My house is well on its way to an organized bliss!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Cool iPhone uses
For a long time there Skadi would only go to sleep if I put her to bed. AB would walk into her room and much to the horror of us all, she would start screaming. It broke AB’s heart, it wasn’t fair to Leif who then never got me for bedtime, and it was hard on me too being the only one who could put her to bed.
This shifted when a few years back I had to start traveling again for work. Suddenly her choices were daddy or nobody. She picked daddy and he wormed his way into the preferred bedtime person by singing her songs at bedtime. Somehow my husband’s soft soothing voice singing “The Rainbow Connection” or “Castle on a Cloud” became her Ambien. And more recently he has become her preferred “putter to bedder”.
This doesn’t bother me. I am making up for lost time with Leif and since Skadi goes to bed before Leif, AB gets to bed earlier. Works out for everyone.
Out of fear of simply swapping roles and getting into a situation where I *can’t* put her to bed, we do switch this up. Skadi is fine with this, but this was the usual result.
Finished reading books.
Skadi: “Mommy, I need a song.”
Me: “Ok, ‘twinkle twinkle…”
Skadi: “No mommy, I need a song from daddy.”
My dad used to always ask my sister and I, “what did you do with the money? The money I gave you for singing lessons?”
Yes, my singing isn’t a pretty thing.
Usually I get up and go drag AB out of Leif’s room to sing her a song and thus finalize the deal.
I figured out something new though the other night that may just give AB a run for his money in the singing department.
YouTube on my iPhone.
Not only does she get to hear “The Rainbow Connection” but she gets to see Kermit sitting on a log singing it!
NM scores one!
I fear though that we are on a slippery slope.
Skadi: “Mommy, play the crocodile song!”
Skadi: “Now mommy, play the pink dancing girls song!”
Skadi: “Wouldn’t it be funny if the crocodile came and ate the girls like he did the frogs?”
Me: “You should be sleeping.” (Stifling laughter.)
Skadi: “I am going to have daddy sing ‘Mahna Mahna’ to me tomorrow night.”
And she drifts off the sleep.
(Another cool use for my iPhone – videocamera! I plan to have my phone there to record this.)
This shifted when a few years back I had to start traveling again for work. Suddenly her choices were daddy or nobody. She picked daddy and he wormed his way into the preferred bedtime person by singing her songs at bedtime. Somehow my husband’s soft soothing voice singing “The Rainbow Connection” or “Castle on a Cloud” became her Ambien. And more recently he has become her preferred “putter to bedder”.
This doesn’t bother me. I am making up for lost time with Leif and since Skadi goes to bed before Leif, AB gets to bed earlier. Works out for everyone.
Out of fear of simply swapping roles and getting into a situation where I *can’t* put her to bed, we do switch this up. Skadi is fine with this, but this was the usual result.
Finished reading books.
Skadi: “Mommy, I need a song.”
Me: “Ok, ‘twinkle twinkle…”
Skadi: “No mommy, I need a song from daddy.”
My dad used to always ask my sister and I, “what did you do with the money? The money I gave you for singing lessons?”
Yes, my singing isn’t a pretty thing.
Usually I get up and go drag AB out of Leif’s room to sing her a song and thus finalize the deal.
I figured out something new though the other night that may just give AB a run for his money in the singing department.
YouTube on my iPhone.
Not only does she get to hear “The Rainbow Connection” but she gets to see Kermit sitting on a log singing it!
NM scores one!
I fear though that we are on a slippery slope.
Skadi: “Mommy, play the crocodile song!”
Skadi: “Now mommy, play the pink dancing girls song!”
Skadi: “Wouldn’t it be funny if the crocodile came and ate the girls like he did the frogs?”
Me: “You should be sleeping.” (Stifling laughter.)
Skadi: “I am going to have daddy sing ‘Mahna Mahna’ to me tomorrow night.”
And she drifts off the sleep.
(Another cool use for my iPhone – videocamera! I plan to have my phone there to record this.)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
March Goals Wrap-Up
My goals for the month of March included cleaning out our closet and with that, organizing the closet and donating a bunch of stuff. I always have better intentions than actual follow through when it comes to clothes. I wish I could stick to that rule that "if I haven't worn it in 6 months to get rid of it".
I don't know what happens but I start flipping through hangers and one or two things actually fall into the pile. This time around I pulled out jeans I will never wear again for a variety of reasons - mostly style issues - and dumped them in the stack. Then I sacraficed one or two shirts and called it good. I did hit the closet hard with organization though. My closet rocks now.
The quilt was number two. And while I never actually did any sewing, thanks to a very, very busy month of March and my sewing machine being held hostage by a little red-haired girl requesting pretty dresse, I did make some decisions about the path forward on my quilt. I need to put the border on it and then haul it down to the Quiltworks store with the backing material I bought on sale at JoAnn's and the batting I bought also on sale. Then I will part, momentarily with the quilt, permanently with $200 and come back to retrieve a beautifully quilted quilt for our bed.
We have done surprisingly well at clearing out our freezer as I discovered today when I went to the freezer to scrounge for a protein for dinner. I moved a few things, but only a few, to reach to the bottom of the freezer to retrieve a flank steak. Much of what is left is pot pies and spaghetti sauce and a few random chili containers. Note to self, when freezing chili, be specific. I need to indicate if I or AB made it (we have very different chili styles) and particularly if AB made it I need to know the cuts of meat, whether there are beans and the color (because once frozen, green and red are remarkably similar in appearance).
Next weekend starts the month of April. My quilt tops the goals for April. Though also on the list is my laundry room and my coat closet. Low hanging fruit really - in hopes that it will push me to devote the time to the quilt.
Our laundry room appears to have been an afterthought in the house. Our washer and dryer barely fit. And as the theme for the house extends to the laundry room, there are shelves and cabinets all over. Untapped storage space. I need to clean out and label the fabric storage boxes I do have on the shelves and just organize the rest of the area.
Then my first floor coat closet is a few hours job at most. I need hangers. Must buy hangers. And I need four storage boxes to split up the gazillions of gloves and hats and ski goggles and snow boots and scarves and earbands out of the one big laundry basket they are currently occupying.
I have the spring cleaning bug, this shouldn't be an issue to do these two things here very soon.
I don't know what happens but I start flipping through hangers and one or two things actually fall into the pile. This time around I pulled out jeans I will never wear again for a variety of reasons - mostly style issues - and dumped them in the stack. Then I sacraficed one or two shirts and called it good. I did hit the closet hard with organization though. My closet rocks now.
The quilt was number two. And while I never actually did any sewing, thanks to a very, very busy month of March and my sewing machine being held hostage by a little red-haired girl requesting pretty dresse, I did make some decisions about the path forward on my quilt. I need to put the border on it and then haul it down to the Quiltworks store with the backing material I bought on sale at JoAnn's and the batting I bought also on sale. Then I will part, momentarily with the quilt, permanently with $200 and come back to retrieve a beautifully quilted quilt for our bed.
We have done surprisingly well at clearing out our freezer as I discovered today when I went to the freezer to scrounge for a protein for dinner. I moved a few things, but only a few, to reach to the bottom of the freezer to retrieve a flank steak. Much of what is left is pot pies and spaghetti sauce and a few random chili containers. Note to self, when freezing chili, be specific. I need to indicate if I or AB made it (we have very different chili styles) and particularly if AB made it I need to know the cuts of meat, whether there are beans and the color (because once frozen, green and red are remarkably similar in appearance).
Next weekend starts the month of April. My quilt tops the goals for April. Though also on the list is my laundry room and my coat closet. Low hanging fruit really - in hopes that it will push me to devote the time to the quilt.
Our laundry room appears to have been an afterthought in the house. Our washer and dryer barely fit. And as the theme for the house extends to the laundry room, there are shelves and cabinets all over. Untapped storage space. I need to clean out and label the fabric storage boxes I do have on the shelves and just organize the rest of the area.
Then my first floor coat closet is a few hours job at most. I need hangers. Must buy hangers. And I need four storage boxes to split up the gazillions of gloves and hats and ski goggles and snow boots and scarves and earbands out of the one big laundry basket they are currently occupying.
I have the spring cleaning bug, this shouldn't be an issue to do these two things here very soon.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Four Year Old Celebration
Skadi opted to have her 4th birthday party at "Coach Brett's". The only hairy thing here is that "Coach Brett" had to be there. Otherwise she wanted a swimming party.
So I picked up the phone and called "Coach Brett's".
Me: "Yes, I want to schedule my daughter's birthday party, but here is the catch, Coach Brett has to be there... yes, I understand his schedule is busy... yes, we will come whenever he is available... yes, just tell him that it is for Skadi and that we are EXTREMELY flexible... yes, call me back after you talk to him..."
Success. Coach Brett would be there as long as I could plan the party for this time on this date.
I agreed and sent in our deposit.
So I picked up the phone and called "Coach Brett's".
Me: "Yes, I want to schedule my daughter's birthday party, but here is the catch, Coach Brett has to be there... yes, I understand his schedule is busy... yes, we will come whenever he is available... yes, just tell him that it is for Skadi and that we are EXTREMELY flexible... yes, call me back after you talk to him..."
Success. Coach Brett would be there as long as I could plan the party for this time on this date.
I agreed and sent in our deposit.
4 Year Well Child
I can't believe my baby is four! What has happened to the time?
So I will try and type between my sobs here...
Skadi had a good 4 year well child exam. She enjoyed telling long stories to her doctor and answering all her questions.
Dr: "Skadi do you know what opposites are?"
Skadi: "No."
Dr: "Ok, if I say 'tall' then the opposite of that is 'short', right?"
Skadi: "Yes, or really tall."
Dr: "Ok, let's see, what is the opposite of hot?"
Skadi: "Really hot."
Dr: "Well no, would it be cold?"
Skadi: "It could be but if it isn't hot than it might just be warm, you just never know about these things."
Dr: "She has a very advanced vocabulary.
The four shots were murder. The doctor actually gave us the option of putting them off until she was five, but since we had already talked about it and had the gummy worms ready in the car, I pulled the trigger.
Skadi cried, "I don't want shots! NO mommy!"
Me: "But they are good for you honey and keep you from getting very sick. And you didn't even cry when you got your flu shot, you will do great!"
Skadi: "I will only do shots if they give me band-aids."
Me: "If the nurse comes in without band-aids I will send her out to go get some."
Of course the nurse came in with band-aids.
Skadi didn't hold her end of the bargain up. She struggled.
And not only does she have a large vocabulary and reasoning skills for her age, but the nurse said she is freaky strong.
She screamed bloody murder.
Me: "Skadi, the band-aids are on."
Skadi: (suddenly stops screaming bloody murder) "I want to see them."
And that was that.
The nurse gave her four stickers and a lollipop and life was excellent again.
The details:
Height - 40 squirmy inches - 55th percentile
Weight - 36 lbs - 50th percentile.
So I will try and type between my sobs here...
Skadi had a good 4 year well child exam. She enjoyed telling long stories to her doctor and answering all her questions.
Dr: "Skadi do you know what opposites are?"
Skadi: "No."
Dr: "Ok, if I say 'tall' then the opposite of that is 'short', right?"
Skadi: "Yes, or really tall."
Dr: "Ok, let's see, what is the opposite of hot?"
Skadi: "Really hot."
Dr: "Well no, would it be cold?"
Skadi: "It could be but if it isn't hot than it might just be warm, you just never know about these things."
Dr: "She has a very advanced vocabulary.
The four shots were murder. The doctor actually gave us the option of putting them off until she was five, but since we had already talked about it and had the gummy worms ready in the car, I pulled the trigger.
Skadi cried, "I don't want shots! NO mommy!"
Me: "But they are good for you honey and keep you from getting very sick. And you didn't even cry when you got your flu shot, you will do great!"
Skadi: "I will only do shots if they give me band-aids."
Me: "If the nurse comes in without band-aids I will send her out to go get some."
Of course the nurse came in with band-aids.
Skadi didn't hold her end of the bargain up. She struggled.
And not only does she have a large vocabulary and reasoning skills for her age, but the nurse said she is freaky strong.
She screamed bloody murder.
Me: "Skadi, the band-aids are on."
Skadi: (suddenly stops screaming bloody murder) "I want to see them."
And that was that.
The nurse gave her four stickers and a lollipop and life was excellent again.
The details:
Height - 40 squirmy inches - 55th percentile
Weight - 36 lbs - 50th percentile.
Friday, March 18, 2011
"Let me give you a hint"
One of my favorite stories about one of my cousins was the Christmas they told her what they bought her dad for Christmas.
She gave him a hint:
"It goes tick tock tick tock."
Every year after they started telling her wacky stuff, like that her sister was getting a dishwasher for Christmas because she spilled the beans.
Skadi is showing signs of being the same way.
Leif is a vault. He loves keeping secrets.
I can do it, but it is very difficult. I am an open book really. I tell my husband everything. I tell my coworkers things I later wish I hadn't. Not only can I not keep a secret, but I tend to tell more than is really necessary.
Anyways, enough about me.
The other day when I picked Skadi up at school they were playing "hide the play tiger" and "hot and cold".
Skadi hid the tiger.
About 5 seconds went by and she lead the 6 or so kids over and said, "let me give you a hint," she paused. Then she pointed at the tiger and said, "IT'S RIGHT THERE!"
And she jumped up and down and squealed.
Aunt Tara came over this evening, picked her up and said, "who has a birthday in a few days?"
Skadi replies, "Ok, I will give you a hint, it's ME!"
Yep, Skadi is showing every single sign of following in my direction with not being able to keep a secret very well.
Apparently it is genetic.
She gave him a hint:
"It goes tick tock tick tock."
Every year after they started telling her wacky stuff, like that her sister was getting a dishwasher for Christmas because she spilled the beans.
Skadi is showing signs of being the same way.
Leif is a vault. He loves keeping secrets.
I can do it, but it is very difficult. I am an open book really. I tell my husband everything. I tell my coworkers things I later wish I hadn't. Not only can I not keep a secret, but I tend to tell more than is really necessary.
Anyways, enough about me.
The other day when I picked Skadi up at school they were playing "hide the play tiger" and "hot and cold".
Skadi hid the tiger.
About 5 seconds went by and she lead the 6 or so kids over and said, "let me give you a hint," she paused. Then she pointed at the tiger and said, "IT'S RIGHT THERE!"
And she jumped up and down and squealed.
Aunt Tara came over this evening, picked her up and said, "who has a birthday in a few days?"
Skadi replies, "Ok, I will give you a hint, it's ME!"
Yep, Skadi is showing every single sign of following in my direction with not being able to keep a secret very well.
Apparently it is genetic.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
How to catch a leprechaun!
Ranking right up there with Santa, is...
Larry the Leprechaun!
Leif's teachers have this tradition that has captivated my son something fierce for the last few years. The kids all get to build a trap to catch a leprechaun. And not just any leprechaun. LARRY the leprechaun. Leif has been talking for months about his plans for his trap.
And now the day is just around the corner. Leif's plans to catch Larry are nearly all we hear about.
"You should see my trap," Leif carries on, "and Parker and I are connecting are traps together to make one massive trap and we are putting it on Mrs. S's desk because last year the leprechaun tipped over her chair!! And he left his shoe behind on the window ledge!"
Seriously the fact that her chair was tipped over was HUGE.
See Larry breaks into the classroom during one of the outside times and wreaks havoc tipping over chairs and disturbing things. Every year Larry leaves some small memento behind that the kids find in the room. Evidence that Larry WAS there!
And just maybe, one of the traps will catch him! Though none actually have caught him in the three years that Leif has been in the room.
"And you get to keep all his gold!" Leif tells us, "but I heard one time that if two people catch it they get to share the gold." Apparently he and Parker have decided they will deal with having half the gold by teaming up and putting their traps conjoined in the most obvious place to catch a leprechaun - his teacher's desk. "Because doesn't every leprechaun want to dance on the teacher's desk?"
This is the first year I am fearing massive disappointment because Leif knows he will not be there in the class next year. It's his last chance to catch Larry. And he is SO determined. SO SO SO determined.
"Mom, what if they don't try to catch Larry at [public school]?" he asked me today.
"Well they probably don't, you might need to ask C how they celebrate St. Patrick's Day," I told him.
I told him we could set a trap at home, but so far no leprechauns have made an appearance at our house, no havoc has been wreaked. (I might have to rectify this...)
----
Yay me! This is post # 1400!
Larry the Leprechaun!
Leif's teachers have this tradition that has captivated my son something fierce for the last few years. The kids all get to build a trap to catch a leprechaun. And not just any leprechaun. LARRY the leprechaun. Leif has been talking for months about his plans for his trap.
And now the day is just around the corner. Leif's plans to catch Larry are nearly all we hear about.
"You should see my trap," Leif carries on, "and Parker and I are connecting are traps together to make one massive trap and we are putting it on Mrs. S's desk because last year the leprechaun tipped over her chair!! And he left his shoe behind on the window ledge!"
Seriously the fact that her chair was tipped over was HUGE.
See Larry breaks into the classroom during one of the outside times and wreaks havoc tipping over chairs and disturbing things. Every year Larry leaves some small memento behind that the kids find in the room. Evidence that Larry WAS there!
And just maybe, one of the traps will catch him! Though none actually have caught him in the three years that Leif has been in the room.
"And you get to keep all his gold!" Leif tells us, "but I heard one time that if two people catch it they get to share the gold." Apparently he and Parker have decided they will deal with having half the gold by teaming up and putting their traps conjoined in the most obvious place to catch a leprechaun - his teacher's desk. "Because doesn't every leprechaun want to dance on the teacher's desk?"
This is the first year I am fearing massive disappointment because Leif knows he will not be there in the class next year. It's his last chance to catch Larry. And he is SO determined. SO SO SO determined.
"Mom, what if they don't try to catch Larry at [public school]?" he asked me today.
"Well they probably don't, you might need to ask C how they celebrate St. Patrick's Day," I told him.
I told him we could set a trap at home, but so far no leprechauns have made an appearance at our house, no havoc has been wreaked. (I might have to rectify this...)
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Yay me! This is post # 1400!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Nothing sweeter...
Me: "Ok, I will go get you a piece of cheese if you say your prayers."
(Skadi insists on eating a piece of cheese before bed every night. I don't know why.)
Skadi: "Dear God. Are you there God? I said, are you there? Oh ok. Please help me to sleep and be good and don't let the shiny sharks get me. Amen."
(Skadi insists on eating a piece of cheese before bed every night. I don't know why.)
Skadi: "Dear God. Are you there God? I said, are you there? Oh ok. Please help me to sleep and be good and don't let the shiny sharks get me. Amen."
If only my whole house could look this nice...
I just have to say that I still – a few weeks after finishing it off – walk into my half bath just to look and obtain a sense of calm. I still love it! And it is kicking some serious motivation into me to make the rest of my house pretty.
Insert my husband’s eye roll.
This weekend I cleaned my closet out. I split it up – my side on Saturday and AB’s side on Sunday. As always happens with this type of organization project, I envision that it is going to take days, maybe even weeks! I look at the daunting mess and worry about getting lost in there and no one finding me.
I was wrong. It took me an hour on each day and this includes hanging hooks, piling up trash, piling up Goodwill stacks and actually bringing stuff into the closet to store. AB gets up before the crack of dawn and he tends to go back and forth from the dresser to the bathroom and closet. I emptied about 1/3 of his dresser out into his shelves. I KNOW my husband well and so I KNOW that these shelves will become messy quickly. He made mention of possibly putting cupboard fronts on the faces of the shelves, but I don’t think that will work easily and I think his time will be better spent just folding and not stuffing stuff on the shelves. Or *my* time will be better spent finding a few low tray like baskets to hold the small loose things. We will see.
In the meantime I have belts, bags and scarves all separated and on their own hooks.
I had to walk in the closet a few times today just to look around and admire.
Our house was a parade home once upon a time. So little details were paid attention to. We have loads of shelves in our closet. I love that. My bank of shelves doesn’t hold clothes. It holds shoes. And I took a little ribbing about the sheer number of shoes on my shelves. Oh well. I can deal.
The last thing I need though is a step ladder to just put in and keep in the closet. A very tall person built our house. Many of these fabulous shelves are up high and I need to be able to utilize them without going to get a ladder. If I can do that then my closet becomes so much more effective at its job.
----------
The other part of my goals that I am working this month is tackling my quilt.
I packed it up and went to the local Quiltworks store that I heard had a long arm machine and could likely quilt my quilt in a very short time. And yes, they can do it, and yes, it will look fancy and fabulous when finished. For only $240.
Sigh.
AB heaved a big sigh and said, “what?”
Then I ignored him and pulled out the three fabrics I found – two for a double border and one for a dress for Skadi.
Quilt – zero progress.
Dress? And matching dolly dress? Done! Skadi had found a pattern for a dress in my stacks of my mom’s sewing stuff. I am sure she bought it intending to make the dress for Skadi at some point (or for Celeste before this). (See I DO get this affliction from someone.) So when I saw the cute fishy fabric I knew I had to have it.
Skadi was a bit disappointed that little mice didn’t come out to help us sew and that flinging the fabric into the air didn’t magically create a gown. But she was very interested in watching me sew and “helping”.
Once the dress was nearly done I needed to sew the shoulder straps on. Skadi squealed, “wait!” And she ran up to her room and found her little baggie of cute buttons from my mom and pulled out two smiley faced orange buttons and handed them to me. Instead of sewing the straps on and putting a zipper in the back, I sewed up the back and put buttons on.
I know my mom was looking down smiling.
Anyways… back to my issue. I have a decision to make. Try and tackle quilting a king sized quilt myself. Pay the local shop's price. Finding a less expensive place online. Or deciding that it is just worth it to try and quilt it myself. Or – and as a quilter, I can’t believe I am thinking this – tie it?
Insert my husband’s eye roll.
This weekend I cleaned my closet out. I split it up – my side on Saturday and AB’s side on Sunday. As always happens with this type of organization project, I envision that it is going to take days, maybe even weeks! I look at the daunting mess and worry about getting lost in there and no one finding me.
I was wrong. It took me an hour on each day and this includes hanging hooks, piling up trash, piling up Goodwill stacks and actually bringing stuff into the closet to store. AB gets up before the crack of dawn and he tends to go back and forth from the dresser to the bathroom and closet. I emptied about 1/3 of his dresser out into his shelves. I KNOW my husband well and so I KNOW that these shelves will become messy quickly. He made mention of possibly putting cupboard fronts on the faces of the shelves, but I don’t think that will work easily and I think his time will be better spent just folding and not stuffing stuff on the shelves. Or *my* time will be better spent finding a few low tray like baskets to hold the small loose things. We will see.
In the meantime I have belts, bags and scarves all separated and on their own hooks.
I had to walk in the closet a few times today just to look around and admire.
Our house was a parade home once upon a time. So little details were paid attention to. We have loads of shelves in our closet. I love that. My bank of shelves doesn’t hold clothes. It holds shoes. And I took a little ribbing about the sheer number of shoes on my shelves. Oh well. I can deal.
The last thing I need though is a step ladder to just put in and keep in the closet. A very tall person built our house. Many of these fabulous shelves are up high and I need to be able to utilize them without going to get a ladder. If I can do that then my closet becomes so much more effective at its job.
----------
The other part of my goals that I am working this month is tackling my quilt.
I packed it up and went to the local Quiltworks store that I heard had a long arm machine and could likely quilt my quilt in a very short time. And yes, they can do it, and yes, it will look fancy and fabulous when finished. For only $240.
Sigh.
AB heaved a big sigh and said, “what?”
Then I ignored him and pulled out the three fabrics I found – two for a double border and one for a dress for Skadi.
Quilt – zero progress.
Dress? And matching dolly dress? Done! Skadi had found a pattern for a dress in my stacks of my mom’s sewing stuff. I am sure she bought it intending to make the dress for Skadi at some point (or for Celeste before this). (See I DO get this affliction from someone.) So when I saw the cute fishy fabric I knew I had to have it.
Skadi was a bit disappointed that little mice didn’t come out to help us sew and that flinging the fabric into the air didn’t magically create a gown. But she was very interested in watching me sew and “helping”.
Once the dress was nearly done I needed to sew the shoulder straps on. Skadi squealed, “wait!” And she ran up to her room and found her little baggie of cute buttons from my mom and pulled out two smiley faced orange buttons and handed them to me. Instead of sewing the straps on and putting a zipper in the back, I sewed up the back and put buttons on.
I know my mom was looking down smiling.
Anyways… back to my issue. I have a decision to make. Try and tackle quilting a king sized quilt myself. Pay the local shop's price. Finding a less expensive place online. Or deciding that it is just worth it to try and quilt it myself. Or – and as a quilter, I can’t believe I am thinking this – tie it?
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Arranged marriages?
When I was about Leif’s age I was playing in my backyard with two of the neighbor girls, Dani and Jennifer, and the neighbor boy, Brandon. Brandon declared a rule:
“Whoever says me first, gets to marry me.”
I have never been terribly quick with my tongue and suffice to say I came in last. I stormed in crying and went to my dad explaining the situation. His reply was, “well why would you want to marry Brandon, he’s just a goofy kid from down the street?”
Brandon moved away or didn’t come around much after that, not sure which. I don’t remember what happened to him he just quit coming around shortly after that.
And I survived.
Leif seems to have a bit of a crush.
He is bound and determined that he is going to marry Niranjana, our good friends’ daughter. Trouble is that Niranjana has other plans.
“I am going to marry Ken,” she announces routinely.
At 6 years old I never thought I would see my son aiming to “break up” other kids!
“What does it mean to ‘break them up’?” I asked. He couldn’t possibly understand dating and boyfriend and girlfriend, could he?
“It means I don’t want them to get married, I want to break them up so they don’t get married,” he replied.
I have listed off all the reasons in the world why we just don’t need to worry about this right now.
… “but Niranjana’s mom says she can’t get married until she goes to college and I think that is a good idea too”…
… “there are so many other people out there, you will meet other people, other girls you might want to marry”…
… “it is a long time till you need to worry about who you will marry”…
(Leif replied the other day that this past year has gone by faster than the others he remembers, so he is going to need to worry about it sooner than we all thought… he has no idea how right he is.)
Nothing helps.
I went and picked Leif up the other day and the kids were all in the same room. Niranjana and Ken were coloring and Niranjana was leading the conversation.
“See Ken is from China and I am from India and so that makes us a perfect match!” (Chuckled to myself at this line of reasoning.)
Leif asked me the other day if he colored his hair black if I thought Niranjana might want to marry him.
Maybe I was getting a bit tired of this obsession. I broke loose and started on the long conversation about why would you want to marry a person who doesn’t want to marry you? Everyone deserves to marry someone who thinks that they are their perfect match regardless of hair color or anything else. Then I added – because I know that what a mom thinks bears heavily on her son’s mind (ha ha ha) – “Leif, I love your strawberry blonde hair and if you ever color it black it would make me so sad.”
He gave up the obsession for a day.
Finally yesterday a line of reasoning that might make sense to Leif entered. And it came from Niranjana.
“Niranjana says that we CAN’T marry each other because we are cousins!” he announced.
I could try and clarify… then I thought wiser of this and decided I would just take this for now.
“Whoever says me first, gets to marry me.”
I have never been terribly quick with my tongue and suffice to say I came in last. I stormed in crying and went to my dad explaining the situation. His reply was, “well why would you want to marry Brandon, he’s just a goofy kid from down the street?”
Brandon moved away or didn’t come around much after that, not sure which. I don’t remember what happened to him he just quit coming around shortly after that.
And I survived.
Leif seems to have a bit of a crush.
He is bound and determined that he is going to marry Niranjana, our good friends’ daughter. Trouble is that Niranjana has other plans.
“I am going to marry Ken,” she announces routinely.
At 6 years old I never thought I would see my son aiming to “break up” other kids!
“What does it mean to ‘break them up’?” I asked. He couldn’t possibly understand dating and boyfriend and girlfriend, could he?
“It means I don’t want them to get married, I want to break them up so they don’t get married,” he replied.
I have listed off all the reasons in the world why we just don’t need to worry about this right now.
… “but Niranjana’s mom says she can’t get married until she goes to college and I think that is a good idea too”…
… “there are so many other people out there, you will meet other people, other girls you might want to marry”…
… “it is a long time till you need to worry about who you will marry”…
(Leif replied the other day that this past year has gone by faster than the others he remembers, so he is going to need to worry about it sooner than we all thought… he has no idea how right he is.)
Nothing helps.
I went and picked Leif up the other day and the kids were all in the same room. Niranjana and Ken were coloring and Niranjana was leading the conversation.
“See Ken is from China and I am from India and so that makes us a perfect match!” (Chuckled to myself at this line of reasoning.)
Leif asked me the other day if he colored his hair black if I thought Niranjana might want to marry him.
Maybe I was getting a bit tired of this obsession. I broke loose and started on the long conversation about why would you want to marry a person who doesn’t want to marry you? Everyone deserves to marry someone who thinks that they are their perfect match regardless of hair color or anything else. Then I added – because I know that what a mom thinks bears heavily on her son’s mind (ha ha ha) – “Leif, I love your strawberry blonde hair and if you ever color it black it would make me so sad.”
He gave up the obsession for a day.
Finally yesterday a line of reasoning that might make sense to Leif entered. And it came from Niranjana.
“Niranjana says that we CAN’T marry each other because we are cousins!” he announced.
I could try and clarify… then I thought wiser of this and decided I would just take this for now.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Things I will never understand...
Why my son will eat his boogers, but refuses to taste an olive, or a bean, or allow his food to touch, or drink a carbonated beverage.
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Why my daughter shrieks in pain when anyone looks at her and falls on the floor faint with utter pain when someone brushes by her or the cat looks at her. But she will clip a clothespin on her own earlobe and then say simply, "oh mommy, that hurt!" (Giggle, giggle, giggle!)
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How everything in the world that Skadi ever does is an "ansident", but cannot accept that anything done to her might also be. "Mommy, I ansidentally hit my brother on the head with my doll while he was watching TV!"
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Why my daughter shrieks in pain when anyone looks at her and falls on the floor faint with utter pain when someone brushes by her or the cat looks at her. But she will clip a clothespin on her own earlobe and then say simply, "oh mommy, that hurt!" (Giggle, giggle, giggle!)
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How everything in the world that Skadi ever does is an "ansident", but cannot accept that anything done to her might also be. "Mommy, I ansidentally hit my brother on the head with my doll while he was watching TV!"
Sunday, March 06, 2011
My new project
Because I have NOTHING better to occupy my time. (Said VERY sarcastically.)
I don't have many expectations of extensive posting. Just something I want to work at. I would like to say that everytime I sit down to post here that I would post there as well.
Check it out:
Four Generations in the Kitchen
The introduction post is here - explaining why I am doing this crazy posting of recipes that I may or may not ever make!
I don't have many expectations of extensive posting. Just something I want to work at. I would like to say that everytime I sit down to post here that I would post there as well.
Check it out:
Four Generations in the Kitchen
The introduction post is here - explaining why I am doing this crazy posting of recipes that I may or may not ever make!
Boys = Fighting and Farting
When AB and I talked (well before we had kids) about how we would raise a boy we agreed (or at least I insisted) that my sons wouldn't have guns or shooting implements or have anything to do with fighting.
Then reality hit. For some reason "fighting" seems to be built into boys' psyche. We channeled Leif towards sword play and lightsabers, but even I have been loosening up on the toys that shoot things.
Like nearly all parents I know out there, we read to the kids regularly. When I am not sure whichever child I am reading to is paying attention, or to test their wakefulness at bedtime storytime I start changing the story. Inserting other names into the stories.
"Young Yolanda Skadi is yelling on a yellow yak."
"Now there are two Leif's on your head!"
Skadi is less receptive to this and usually tells me to "read it right mommy or don't read it at all".
Leif laughs.
Transformers are NOT my favorite toys in the world. Far from it. And when Leif starts asking for Transformer stories I try to keep my eyes from floating to the top of my head.
I have a new solution... there isn't much that ranks up there with stories about fighting... but farting gets dang close.
About a month or so ago, I started substituting some words here and adding in an occasional sentence about how stinky Earth is becoming due to all this flatulance.
And now I have to admit, those Transformer stories can be danged funny!
The only downside is that giggling little boys are usually not as prone to falling asleep during storytime.
Just my way of combating violence with "hilarious" bodily functions.
Then reality hit. For some reason "fighting" seems to be built into boys' psyche. We channeled Leif towards sword play and lightsabers, but even I have been loosening up on the toys that shoot things.
Like nearly all parents I know out there, we read to the kids regularly. When I am not sure whichever child I am reading to is paying attention, or to test their wakefulness at bedtime storytime I start changing the story. Inserting other names into the stories.
"Young Yolanda Skadi is yelling on a yellow yak."
"Now there are two Leif's on your head!"
Skadi is less receptive to this and usually tells me to "read it right mommy or don't read it at all".
Leif laughs.
Transformers are NOT my favorite toys in the world. Far from it. And when Leif starts asking for Transformer stories I try to keep my eyes from floating to the top of my head.
I have a new solution... there isn't much that ranks up there with stories about fighting... but farting gets dang close.
About a month or so ago, I started substituting some words here and adding in an occasional sentence about how stinky Earth is becoming due to all this flatulance.
And now I have to admit, those Transformer stories can be danged funny!
The only downside is that giggling little boys are usually not as prone to falling asleep during storytime.
Just my way of combating violence with "hilarious" bodily functions.
A brand new half bath
The last touch to the bathroom was finished this past week - crown moulding! I loved the way the hotel room we stayed at in Palm Springs used dark crown moulding at the intersection of the walls and the ceiling. So I stole the idea for my bathroom makeover.
The crown moulding at Home Depot - you know the stuff labelled crown moulding was wide. Too wide, in my opinion for my little half bath. So I found some trim I liked instead and painted it.
Then I bought some new accessories - towel and soap pump shown here and finished the room off. I love the mirror in this room - it came with the house.
The crown moulding at Home Depot - you know the stuff labelled crown moulding was wide. Too wide, in my opinion for my little half bath. So I found some trim I liked instead and painted it.
Then I bought some new accessories - towel and soap pump shown here and finished the room off. I love the mirror in this room - it came with the house.
This is an awful crooked picture below, but it shows the toilet paper/flower pot thingy that I bought (that AB laughs at). You can also see the green color that has to go at some point.
Yay! I am really happy with how the half bath came out. February goal was a success!
I can't say much for March yet... I bought a few hooks for the closet to hang my belts and shawls/scarves. We will claim 10% complete on the status of the closet. By the end of the day if I am lucky I might be able to see the floor. I can't claim any status on the quilt - not even a trip to the fabric store to buy the supplies. Though we are slowly working our way through the freezer... last night we had both sturgeon and salmon from the freezer - and it was delicious.
Tonight we are having paella... of which nothing came from the freezer. Oh well.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Words that strike fear into my heart...
Me: "What is Skadi doing?"
AB: "She's downstairs watching the Academy awards."
AB: "She's downstairs watching the Academy awards."
Saturday, February 26, 2011
My gamer
Leif is very much a little gamer. He comes by it honestly really. Both AB and I enjoy board games and computer games. I vaguely remember a long distant past where I would sit for hours in front of the computer playing Diablo and Civilization. It is a vague memory that doesn't include little voices around me. As a kid I was much more intrigued by an afternoon in front of the Colecovision or my Commodore Vic 20 than going outside.
Leif inherited this unfortunate quality. I should probably apologize now to all his future girlfriends because he inherited this from both sides.
Today one of Leif's female friends - who isn't a gamer - came over for a play date. It didn't start out well when she went to play with Skadi's dollhouse and Leif had a despondent and somewhat desperate look on his face. We let this rest a little to see how long the doll thing would last.
It went on a little long for Leif (Skadi was thrilled) and so we released him to his DS for a bit.
After a little while I picked up the Wii Tangled game that she brought with. Leif siezed the opportunity to get the Wii remote in his hand by agreeing readily to being Flynn Rider.
"I have a sword!" he exclaimed.
Pretty soon they were playing away. But I loved the conversations during.
Leif: "I am going to get that guy!"
C: "No, you are supposed to ask him if he has the radish drink instead."
Leif: "Oh."
Few minutes pass...
Leif: "I am going to slice that bad guy in half!"
C: "That's not a bad guy, you have to see if he has a jewel."
Leif: "Oh."
Few minutes pass...
Leif: "Hi-YA! Let me go tackle that one and fight him C!"
C: "C, no Leif we just have to see if he has the answer."
Leif: "Oh."
I was impressed that despite there being no bashing or whacking or sword slicing that he hung in there. I was worried we would see tears, but no. And he didn't even make any requests for teaching C how to play "Lightsaber Duel".
I was impressed that he was just happy enough to be able to play Wii that he willingly and enthusiastically (mostly) played a "girls" game (dubbed so a little bit later because there "isn't enough attacking").
Leif inherited this unfortunate quality. I should probably apologize now to all his future girlfriends because he inherited this from both sides.
Today one of Leif's female friends - who isn't a gamer - came over for a play date. It didn't start out well when she went to play with Skadi's dollhouse and Leif had a despondent and somewhat desperate look on his face. We let this rest a little to see how long the doll thing would last.
It went on a little long for Leif (Skadi was thrilled) and so we released him to his DS for a bit.
After a little while I picked up the Wii Tangled game that she brought with. Leif siezed the opportunity to get the Wii remote in his hand by agreeing readily to being Flynn Rider.
"I have a sword!" he exclaimed.
Pretty soon they were playing away. But I loved the conversations during.
Leif: "I am going to get that guy!"
C: "No, you are supposed to ask him if he has the radish drink instead."
Leif: "Oh."
Few minutes pass...
Leif: "I am going to slice that bad guy in half!"
C: "That's not a bad guy, you have to see if he has a jewel."
Leif: "Oh."
Few minutes pass...
Leif: "Hi-YA! Let me go tackle that one and fight him C!"
C: "C, no Leif we just have to see if he has the answer."
Leif: "Oh."
I was impressed that despite there being no bashing or whacking or sword slicing that he hung in there. I was worried we would see tears, but no. And he didn't even make any requests for teaching C how to play "Lightsaber Duel".
I was impressed that he was just happy enough to be able to play Wii that he willingly and enthusiastically (mostly) played a "girls" game (dubbed so a little bit later because there "isn't enough attacking").
Thursday, February 24, 2011
It's good my kids make me laugh...
Me putting Skadi to bed:
Skadi: "Mom, I need a song."
Me: "Never smile at a croco-"
Skadi: "No mom, I need a song-"
Me: "Twinkle twinkle little-"
Skadi: "No MOM! I need a song from daddy, go get him please."
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Me: "Skadi, why does the wind blow?"
Skadi: "Because it is rude that way."
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Me: "Where does snow come from?"
Skadi: "From the clouds."
Leif: "No Skadi it comes from little drops of water in the sky that dry out and turn to snow."
-----------
Skadi: "Mommy, can we give me to Niranjana since she doesn't have a sister?"
Me: "Well if you were Niranjana's sister that means you wouldn't be my little girl anymore, you would be Auntie Melissa's little girl."
Skadi: "That's ok, I like Auntie Melissa."
Me: (Sob.)
------------
Me: "Skadi why is the sky blue?"
Skadi: "Because it is supposed to be."
Me: "Leif, why is the grass green?"
Leif: "Because that means it is healthy."
Me: "Well why is it brown now?"
Leif: "Because it hasn't rained in a long time."
Me: "Does that mean it isn't healthy."
Leif: (Sighing) "Mom, it means it is dormant."
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Leif: "Mom, I want to read 'The Lion, The Witch and the Warthog'."
Me: "I think you mean 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'."
Leif: "No, I mean warthog, why would it be wardrobe?"
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Leif: "I have to have my snow gear today!"
Me: "Well it didn't really snow much, there's barely any out there."
Leif: "Well Ms. M said that if we brought our snow gear we could have a snowball fight!"
Me: "But there isn't enough snow for a snowball fight?"
Leif: "Well then why would she say we could have a snowball fight?"
------------
Me: "Skadi where were you before you were in my tummy?"
Skadi: "North America."
Me: "What were you doing?"
Skadi: "Just playing dolls and stuff."
Leif: "Mom, babies come from EITHER places or tummies."
Me: "No, all babies come from tummies."
Leif: "No mom, you are wrong, some come from places."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Leif: "Well we came from your tummy, but Niranjana came from India and that is a place."
Me: (Still haven't continued this conversation.)
-----------
Me: "Skadi how are clouds made?"
Skadi: "By God."
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Me: "Skadi how do bushes grow?"
Skadi: "Up."
Leif: "From the ground Skadi, say from the ground, they grow from the ground, it is a trick question."
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Me: "Skadi why is the grass green?"
Skadi: "Because it is supposed to be."
Me: "Leif, why do the trees have leaves?"
Leif: "Because the tree sucks up water and water makes the leaves and the leaves catch more water and make more leaves and more leaves."
Me: "Sounds like you have a pretty firm grasp of science."
Leif: "Yeah, but I want to be a computer engineer spy who works for the CIA mom, I don't want to work with you anymore."
Skadi: "Mom, I need a song."
Me: "Never smile at a croco-"
Skadi: "No mom, I need a song-"
Me: "Twinkle twinkle little-"
Skadi: "No MOM! I need a song from daddy, go get him please."
---------
Me: "Skadi, why does the wind blow?"
Skadi: "Because it is rude that way."
----------
Me: "Where does snow come from?"
Skadi: "From the clouds."
Leif: "No Skadi it comes from little drops of water in the sky that dry out and turn to snow."
-----------
Skadi: "Mommy, can we give me to Niranjana since she doesn't have a sister?"
Me: "Well if you were Niranjana's sister that means you wouldn't be my little girl anymore, you would be Auntie Melissa's little girl."
Skadi: "That's ok, I like Auntie Melissa."
Me: (Sob.)
------------
Me: "Skadi why is the sky blue?"
Skadi: "Because it is supposed to be."
Me: "Leif, why is the grass green?"
Leif: "Because that means it is healthy."
Me: "Well why is it brown now?"
Leif: "Because it hasn't rained in a long time."
Me: "Does that mean it isn't healthy."
Leif: (Sighing) "Mom, it means it is dormant."
-----------
Leif: "Mom, I want to read 'The Lion, The Witch and the Warthog'."
Me: "I think you mean 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'."
Leif: "No, I mean warthog, why would it be wardrobe?"
-----------
Leif: "I have to have my snow gear today!"
Me: "Well it didn't really snow much, there's barely any out there."
Leif: "Well Ms. M said that if we brought our snow gear we could have a snowball fight!"
Me: "But there isn't enough snow for a snowball fight?"
Leif: "Well then why would she say we could have a snowball fight?"
------------
Me: "Skadi where were you before you were in my tummy?"
Skadi: "North America."
Me: "What were you doing?"
Skadi: "Just playing dolls and stuff."
Leif: "Mom, babies come from EITHER places or tummies."
Me: "No, all babies come from tummies."
Leif: "No mom, you are wrong, some come from places."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Leif: "Well we came from your tummy, but Niranjana came from India and that is a place."
Me: (Still haven't continued this conversation.)
-----------
Me: "Skadi how are clouds made?"
Skadi: "By God."
------------
Me: "Skadi how do bushes grow?"
Skadi: "Up."
Leif: "From the ground Skadi, say from the ground, they grow from the ground, it is a trick question."
------------
Me: "Skadi why is the grass green?"
Skadi: "Because it is supposed to be."
Me: "Leif, why do the trees have leaves?"
Leif: "Because the tree sucks up water and water makes the leaves and the leaves catch more water and make more leaves and more leaves."
Me: "Sounds like you have a pretty firm grasp of science."
Leif: "Yeah, but I want to be a computer engineer spy who works for the CIA mom, I don't want to work with you anymore."
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Signs my daughter has been in trouble at preschool...
This morning.
Me: Skadi get your shoes on.
Me: Skadi get your shoes on.
Me: Skadi, I said get your shoes on, we have to get to school.
Skadi: Well Ms. A told me that I lost the privilege of wearing shoes to school.
---------
At dinner.
AB: Skadi eat your dinner.
AB: Skadi eat your dinner.
AB: Skadi, I said you need to eat your dinner.
Skadi: Well Ms. A told me that I lost the privilege of eating dinner.
Me: Skadi get your shoes on.
Me: Skadi get your shoes on.
Me: Skadi, I said get your shoes on, we have to get to school.
Skadi: Well Ms. A told me that I lost the privilege of wearing shoes to school.
---------
At dinner.
AB: Skadi eat your dinner.
AB: Skadi eat your dinner.
AB: Skadi, I said you need to eat your dinner.
Skadi: Well Ms. A told me that I lost the privilege of eating dinner.
Goals Update
I spent this past weekend working on my February goal. I am actually really, really pleased with myself. It is not 100% complete. But I have a very good chance of it being completed on time and within budget by the end of the month.
I, with the help of a good friend, painted my little half bathroom on Saturday and finished it up on Sunday. It took about an hour to tape it all and get it prepped. She came over and manned the roller while I crawled around the floor painting around the toilet and sink and chatted away. Normally AB does a lot of the painting with me, but it was nice to have a friend to help.
My little tiny bathroom went from blah white to elegant and spicy! (If I may say so myself.) I am really, really happy with the bathroom. I had to run to Michael’s on a secret errand this weekend and ended up buying a few decorative elements for the bathroom. I haven’t been happy with this little cabinet I have in the bathroom that sits on the floor that I use to hold the TP. So I got a tallish metal cylindrical vase thing and stacked the TP in there. Ok, so AB thought this was about the most ridiculous thing ever… But I like it. It looks stylish. I think.
AB loves the bathroom and commented that it looks like it belongs in some other house… not our house! It really did change the feel of the bathroom.
The one thing I have left is to paint the crown moulding and have AB install it. He is pleased about this revelation of mine that I suddenly “need” crown moulding in the bathroom because it lends credence to his long standing claim that he “needs” an air compressor and nail gun.
When we were in Palm Springs last week I loved the look of the black crown moudling in the hotel room. I opted for “espresso” to match other elements in the bathroom and the furniture we have in the front lower level of the house.
Once the crown moudling is in and I have bought a few hand towels that match the bathroom better than the ones I presently have… and a new valence… and a soap dispenser… then I will be done!
Which brings us to the topic of March.
March is going to be multi-faceted.
I want to finish the quilt I started (yes, the one I swore would only take me 3 weeks to do the top, and then the dog killed the sewing machine…). I want to finish that for spring so that I can pull my duvet off the bed and have smooth lines of a pretty quilt. My biggest issue is trying to figure out how to “quilt” a king sized quilt. It may be that hand quilting – which I HAVE done before (a long time ago) – may be my best option. Yikes. Not sure a month is long enough for that.
My closet has recently fallen to absolute disaster levels. Not only does it need cleaned out, but I need some more hooks for accessories and I need a good purge of the clothes I no longer wear.
The last one that AB has challenged us to? Eat our freezer to the bottom. This isn’t entirely possible. Because I am NOT eating the four or five chicken pot pies I have saved in there. And I think we probably have 15 containers of spaghetti sauce. I have seriously like 3 weeks of food if we only ate chicken pot pies and spaghetti sauce. I have a tortierre from a friend that I am saving for a special occasion to savor in there too. All the other stuff? The meat and such that we have purchased and not cooked? Bring it on.
The other tasks on my list for 2011 are (in no particular order):
Patio for the backyard (we may opt to take the backyard remodel that we want in steps and just start with getting a nice concrete pad out there).
Hardwood flooring for the office and formal dining room.
Paint the foyer/dining room/office.
Master bedroom… just take my word for it, it needs a serious overhaul.
I, with the help of a good friend, painted my little half bathroom on Saturday and finished it up on Sunday. It took about an hour to tape it all and get it prepped. She came over and manned the roller while I crawled around the floor painting around the toilet and sink and chatted away. Normally AB does a lot of the painting with me, but it was nice to have a friend to help.
My little tiny bathroom went from blah white to elegant and spicy! (If I may say so myself.) I am really, really happy with the bathroom. I had to run to Michael’s on a secret errand this weekend and ended up buying a few decorative elements for the bathroom. I haven’t been happy with this little cabinet I have in the bathroom that sits on the floor that I use to hold the TP. So I got a tallish metal cylindrical vase thing and stacked the TP in there. Ok, so AB thought this was about the most ridiculous thing ever… But I like it. It looks stylish. I think.
AB loves the bathroom and commented that it looks like it belongs in some other house… not our house! It really did change the feel of the bathroom.
The one thing I have left is to paint the crown moulding and have AB install it. He is pleased about this revelation of mine that I suddenly “need” crown moulding in the bathroom because it lends credence to his long standing claim that he “needs” an air compressor and nail gun.
When we were in Palm Springs last week I loved the look of the black crown moudling in the hotel room. I opted for “espresso” to match other elements in the bathroom and the furniture we have in the front lower level of the house.
Once the crown moudling is in and I have bought a few hand towels that match the bathroom better than the ones I presently have… and a new valence… and a soap dispenser… then I will be done!
Which brings us to the topic of March.
March is going to be multi-faceted.
I want to finish the quilt I started (yes, the one I swore would only take me 3 weeks to do the top, and then the dog killed the sewing machine…). I want to finish that for spring so that I can pull my duvet off the bed and have smooth lines of a pretty quilt. My biggest issue is trying to figure out how to “quilt” a king sized quilt. It may be that hand quilting – which I HAVE done before (a long time ago) – may be my best option. Yikes. Not sure a month is long enough for that.
My closet has recently fallen to absolute disaster levels. Not only does it need cleaned out, but I need some more hooks for accessories and I need a good purge of the clothes I no longer wear.
The last one that AB has challenged us to? Eat our freezer to the bottom. This isn’t entirely possible. Because I am NOT eating the four or five chicken pot pies I have saved in there. And I think we probably have 15 containers of spaghetti sauce. I have seriously like 3 weeks of food if we only ate chicken pot pies and spaghetti sauce. I have a tortierre from a friend that I am saving for a special occasion to savor in there too. All the other stuff? The meat and such that we have purchased and not cooked? Bring it on.
The other tasks on my list for 2011 are (in no particular order):
Patio for the backyard (we may opt to take the backyard remodel that we want in steps and just start with getting a nice concrete pad out there).
Hardwood flooring for the office and formal dining room.
Paint the foyer/dining room/office.
Master bedroom… just take my word for it, it needs a serious overhaul.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Switching away from pink
When you know someone who is suffering cancer it seems like there just isn't enough money out there for research. As a scientist, albeit a non-medical, non-bio scientist, I get the proposal and funding process and fully understand that there is limited funds out there for really great ideas.
Breast cancer, at one point, was the cancer that people didn't talk about. A woman's problem. And not always terribly survivable. Thanks in large part, or maybe huge part, to the Susan G. Komen foundation this has changed. Breast cancer has turned into, in the last decade or so, a cancer with a much higher survival rate. Thankfully.
As someone who has lost a family member to cancer, I have seen in the cancer communities online, frustration with breast cancer research. "All the money goes to breast cancer", is the common lament. As someone who lost a family member to a rare cancer, it would be easy to fall into this. Nobody researched rare cancers. There is no payoff. A cancer that 4000 people get a year is terribly unfortunate. But who is going to research and make a medication to treat 4000 people a year. It doesn't make financial sense. (And I am a capitalist at heart.) I found this frustrating, financial sense be damned, you are talking about my mom.
Once my mom exhausted the routine treatments for her type of cancer (pretty quickly) she moved onto clinical trials where none of her options were targeted treatments for her cancer. It was frustrating to her. To all of us. Her participation in a clinical trial was akin to playing the lotto with the major benefit being to check off a researchers list - nope it doesn't work for this rare cancer. The researcher didn't hit the lotto and neither did my mom.
In the last few years I quit opting for pink. I bought the obligatory pink pin at work for $5, but my money hasn't gone to breast cancer research or to buy pink blankets with ribbons on them, or appliances with little ribbons on them. Instead my giving to the American Cancer Society went up as well as to the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. A small foundation that is devoted to this rare and fatal cancer.
I never stuff my change or money into the jars in the check out lines at the grocery store. But I stood there today reading what the cause of the day was, surprised to find out it wasn't breast cancer. Nope, pancreatic cancer. A cancer thought to be highly related to my mom's rare cancer, cholangiocarcinoma. I immediately opened my wallet and stuffed some bills in the cup that held pennies and a few dimes and nickels.
As a scientist I do understand that the research performed on breast cancer may very well lead to discoveries that help different cancers. That there are markers that are similar and may respond. I believe that the researchers are doing their best to save a lot of women. And they are saving a lot of women, thank God. (I have a high school friend who is battling breast cancer right now and I am very happy for the research that will hopefully give her a new lease on life.)
But my point? Let's not forget about all the others. A once small foundation has turned pink on its head and enabled many women to live strong.
Let's change the way people think about green now.
Breast cancer, at one point, was the cancer that people didn't talk about. A woman's problem. And not always terribly survivable. Thanks in large part, or maybe huge part, to the Susan G. Komen foundation this has changed. Breast cancer has turned into, in the last decade or so, a cancer with a much higher survival rate. Thankfully.
As someone who has lost a family member to cancer, I have seen in the cancer communities online, frustration with breast cancer research. "All the money goes to breast cancer", is the common lament. As someone who lost a family member to a rare cancer, it would be easy to fall into this. Nobody researched rare cancers. There is no payoff. A cancer that 4000 people get a year is terribly unfortunate. But who is going to research and make a medication to treat 4000 people a year. It doesn't make financial sense. (And I am a capitalist at heart.) I found this frustrating, financial sense be damned, you are talking about my mom.
Once my mom exhausted the routine treatments for her type of cancer (pretty quickly) she moved onto clinical trials where none of her options were targeted treatments for her cancer. It was frustrating to her. To all of us. Her participation in a clinical trial was akin to playing the lotto with the major benefit being to check off a researchers list - nope it doesn't work for this rare cancer. The researcher didn't hit the lotto and neither did my mom.
In the last few years I quit opting for pink. I bought the obligatory pink pin at work for $5, but my money hasn't gone to breast cancer research or to buy pink blankets with ribbons on them, or appliances with little ribbons on them. Instead my giving to the American Cancer Society went up as well as to the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. A small foundation that is devoted to this rare and fatal cancer.
I never stuff my change or money into the jars in the check out lines at the grocery store. But I stood there today reading what the cause of the day was, surprised to find out it wasn't breast cancer. Nope, pancreatic cancer. A cancer thought to be highly related to my mom's rare cancer, cholangiocarcinoma. I immediately opened my wallet and stuffed some bills in the cup that held pennies and a few dimes and nickels.
As a scientist I do understand that the research performed on breast cancer may very well lead to discoveries that help different cancers. That there are markers that are similar and may respond. I believe that the researchers are doing their best to save a lot of women. And they are saving a lot of women, thank God. (I have a high school friend who is battling breast cancer right now and I am very happy for the research that will hopefully give her a new lease on life.)
But my point? Let's not forget about all the others. A once small foundation has turned pink on its head and enabled many women to live strong.
Let's change the way people think about green now.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Making Decisions
I have always been a tad bit indecisive. This is part of my versatility thing that I have been working on the past few years. Analyze the situation (quickly) and make a decision when one needs to be made. I am getting much better at this in my professional life.
Personal life? Not so much.
Leif will start public school... first grade, this fall. I am taking a big gulp and registering him for this new phase of his life on March 1 with a good friend who is also in the same position. Declining that private school option that we have been with for the last 6 years with Leif and jumping over to the scary unknown. The place where kids are eaten alive.
Ok, kidding. I have friends whose kids are surviving with minimal scars.
I survived public school.
But I also had my mom home there waiting with homemade cookies and orange juice at the end of the day.
This has been killing me for the last year or so as I stare down this new aspect of Leif's life. Public school. A bus. A class with actual desks in rows. A teacher to student ratio of more than one to six.
Today I met with one of my managers. I truly am lucky to be in such a great group with two women who have children and have been through this all before.
I am also extremely lucky to be in a position where I can make decisions about my career and schedule. Not many women can choose whether they work 40 hours a day, flex their time and work from home, or opt for a less than full time schedule.
I trust my managers and appreciate their input. So when my manager had a quick answer for me this morning on what I should do this fall with my son going into first grade, as one mom who has been there and done that with a very successful career, I truly appreciated it.
Last year I carried seven projects where six of them were my own with my name as PI or Co-PI. This year it dropped to four. Three of those finish (or wind down substantially) on September 30th. I am in a position where (if my proposals pending out there don't come through) I will be looking for work. This hasn't happened in years.
"Do it now," she said. "It won't hurt your promotability, do it when you actually have a decrease in work. Try not to go below 80% time."
And I left her office elated. My answer! And it felt right.
Starting late this summer I am dropping from full full time. To just mostly full time. Or almost full time.
And with any luck I will have more time in the evenings to hang with my kids, get dinner made and just be happy.
And to be there with homemade cookies and orange juice. (Maybe.)
Personal life? Not so much.
Leif will start public school... first grade, this fall. I am taking a big gulp and registering him for this new phase of his life on March 1 with a good friend who is also in the same position. Declining that private school option that we have been with for the last 6 years with Leif and jumping over to the scary unknown. The place where kids are eaten alive.
Ok, kidding. I have friends whose kids are surviving with minimal scars.
I survived public school.
But I also had my mom home there waiting with homemade cookies and orange juice at the end of the day.
This has been killing me for the last year or so as I stare down this new aspect of Leif's life. Public school. A bus. A class with actual desks in rows. A teacher to student ratio of more than one to six.
Today I met with one of my managers. I truly am lucky to be in such a great group with two women who have children and have been through this all before.
I am also extremely lucky to be in a position where I can make decisions about my career and schedule. Not many women can choose whether they work 40 hours a day, flex their time and work from home, or opt for a less than full time schedule.
I trust my managers and appreciate their input. So when my manager had a quick answer for me this morning on what I should do this fall with my son going into first grade, as one mom who has been there and done that with a very successful career, I truly appreciated it.
Last year I carried seven projects where six of them were my own with my name as PI or Co-PI. This year it dropped to four. Three of those finish (or wind down substantially) on September 30th. I am in a position where (if my proposals pending out there don't come through) I will be looking for work. This hasn't happened in years.
"Do it now," she said. "It won't hurt your promotability, do it when you actually have a decrease in work. Try not to go below 80% time."
And I left her office elated. My answer! And it felt right.
Starting late this summer I am dropping from full full time. To just mostly full time. Or almost full time.
And with any luck I will have more time in the evenings to hang with my kids, get dinner made and just be happy.
And to be there with homemade cookies and orange juice. (Maybe.)
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Keeping it simple... and clean...
One of the really, really neat things about raising kids is seeing their evolution. Lots of people love babies. Ok, yes, I love babies. But I really, really love the toddler to young child time. I love when they start interacting. Trying to communicate, developing their own styles of communication, saying funny things. I don’t care for the Terrible Twos and Threes and I have had a lot of that the past two years, but we can just use a partition coefficient here and pretend that doesn’t exist for now. I keep saying it, and I will say it again. It just keeps getting better.
Since Leif was little he always showed a bit of OCD. In fact, I think I have a topic reserved in this blog for Leif’s OCD. The past few months this has spread into a new and interesting area. His bedroom.
If you saw Leif’s bedroom you would assume he is a poor abused child with no toys. While the reality is that the kid has a closet that rivals our Master closet and a toy room. But that’s not all of it… His closet? Skadi spends the vast majority of the time in the closet rifling through stuff, generally destroying the area. And I have about 6 Rubbermaid containers stacked in there as well. I will take storage space wherever I can get it.
Nope, Leif likes things simple. All he really needs are a bookshelf for his books, a place to put his clothes, a place to store his electronics (i.e., charge the DS, keep his headphones handy, etc.), and a few shelves to show off his trophies and his Harry Potter collections and to keep his new locked box. (I bought him a $10 cash box with a key at Target… best thing since sliced bread according to Leif.)
Compare to Skadi’s room that is just unmanageable. Seriously. That child can destroy her room faster than you can blink your eye. Tornado Skadi. And she has toys and loves her toys and wants them all out in her room at all the same times. This is a scary tale for another day. Leif's closet? Well she endured his wrath the other night when she pulled out a box of trucks and didn't put them back.
Back to Leif.
We have “pick up night” every Wednesday evening. The kids’ rooms get picked up along with common areas throughout the house to enable the housecleaner to be able to actually clean.
Leif is a master bedroom cleaner. When he says it is done, you can bet he is not joking. It’s done, it’s perfect and it took him less than 3 minutes. (I have started paying him to help Skadi with her room.) On top of that, Leif has started cleaning his room ahead of time so that he doesn’t have to do it on Wednesday. Because according to him he just has “too much stuff to do on Wednesday with spelling test on Thursday and all”.
Last Tuesday night I finished reading him a book and tossed it on the floor next to the bed. Wow did I unleash the wrath.
Leif: “MOM! I just picked up my room, I don’t want to have to pick it up again tomorrow, would you please put that book back where it belongs?!”
(I could have sworn I have heard this line many times before... only not starting with "mom".)
Leif loves having friends over, but he gets pretty massive anxiety after they leave and his room is a mess. In fact, I have decided that from now on we need to incorporate pick up time into play dates. I did this when I was a kid. I remember storming out of one friend’s house and marching home because we (once again) got into a fight about something. I got home and Jennifer’s mother had called my mom and told her I didn’t help clean up. Dang it. I had to march back up there (tail between legs) to go help her pick up.
Yes, picking up is going to be part of the new play date routine.
I see Leif’s future… a sparsely furnished, stylish (thanks to his interior decorator sister) minimalist loft. Hopefully he can find a woman who will put up with his neat freakiness…
Having Leif jump on me about not putting his book away made me smile.
My mom was somewhere looking down with a big grin on her face.
Since Leif was little he always showed a bit of OCD. In fact, I think I have a topic reserved in this blog for Leif’s OCD. The past few months this has spread into a new and interesting area. His bedroom.
If you saw Leif’s bedroom you would assume he is a poor abused child with no toys. While the reality is that the kid has a closet that rivals our Master closet and a toy room. But that’s not all of it… His closet? Skadi spends the vast majority of the time in the closet rifling through stuff, generally destroying the area. And I have about 6 Rubbermaid containers stacked in there as well. I will take storage space wherever I can get it.
Nope, Leif likes things simple. All he really needs are a bookshelf for his books, a place to put his clothes, a place to store his electronics (i.e., charge the DS, keep his headphones handy, etc.), and a few shelves to show off his trophies and his Harry Potter collections and to keep his new locked box. (I bought him a $10 cash box with a key at Target… best thing since sliced bread according to Leif.)
Compare to Skadi’s room that is just unmanageable. Seriously. That child can destroy her room faster than you can blink your eye. Tornado Skadi. And she has toys and loves her toys and wants them all out in her room at all the same times. This is a scary tale for another day. Leif's closet? Well she endured his wrath the other night when she pulled out a box of trucks and didn't put them back.
Back to Leif.
We have “pick up night” every Wednesday evening. The kids’ rooms get picked up along with common areas throughout the house to enable the housecleaner to be able to actually clean.
Leif is a master bedroom cleaner. When he says it is done, you can bet he is not joking. It’s done, it’s perfect and it took him less than 3 minutes. (I have started paying him to help Skadi with her room.) On top of that, Leif has started cleaning his room ahead of time so that he doesn’t have to do it on Wednesday. Because according to him he just has “too much stuff to do on Wednesday with spelling test on Thursday and all”.
Last Tuesday night I finished reading him a book and tossed it on the floor next to the bed. Wow did I unleash the wrath.
Leif: “MOM! I just picked up my room, I don’t want to have to pick it up again tomorrow, would you please put that book back where it belongs?!”
(I could have sworn I have heard this line many times before... only not starting with "mom".)
Leif loves having friends over, but he gets pretty massive anxiety after they leave and his room is a mess. In fact, I have decided that from now on we need to incorporate pick up time into play dates. I did this when I was a kid. I remember storming out of one friend’s house and marching home because we (once again) got into a fight about something. I got home and Jennifer’s mother had called my mom and told her I didn’t help clean up. Dang it. I had to march back up there (tail between legs) to go help her pick up.
Yes, picking up is going to be part of the new play date routine.
I see Leif’s future… a sparsely furnished, stylish (thanks to his interior decorator sister) minimalist loft. Hopefully he can find a woman who will put up with his neat freakiness…
Having Leif jump on me about not putting his book away made me smile.
My mom was somewhere looking down with a big grin on her face.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Hola February
I have really been looking forward to my February goals. I needed a change up from organizing and picking through stuff and trashing stuff and sending stuff to Goodwill... I need a pretty project.
So here it is my tiny half bath on the bottom floor of our house. It is most commonly used by my kids. Next would be guests. Last would be AB and I. I want something pretty and elegant, a bit edgey and fun.
I never used to have a hard time picking paint colors, but I have seriously been all over the map with this room. Partly because I want a unified theme for the entire first floor. Specifically the office, foyer, dining room and half bath. I have lots of two toned woods, grey carpets that will hopefully see the curb this year in favor of hardwood and clayish, terra cotta-ish colored tile.
And this green foyer. The green foyer is going bye bye. I can't coordinate anything with it. It's killing me.
February is a short month, so I can tackle the half bath and get a start on my redecorate the front first level of the house.
I started with some brown/deep purple/plum colors. I want something a bit dramatic and am not overly concerned with making the space appear small. It is a half bathroom after all, it is never going to appear spacious.
The main color I was targeting was the one next to the mirror. (Don't you love the wooden mirror? I do.)
I went a tone or two softer to test because so many people said, "you can't go that dark in that room".
And well... maybe they were right. But I also couldn't do the mauve.
Back to square one.
One evening of after Christmas shopping I came across these iris paintings on a great clearance. And I love irises. Reminds me of living in Boulder and the iris field on Broadway as well as my wedding flower.
See in addition to the dark color and the mauve, I had also picked out an "acorn spice" color. When we put it on the wall we said, "ewww, breastfed baby poop". (The mustard on the right by the window. Yes, I will be replacing the valence.)
Then I put the picture up.
And suddenly the breastfed baby poop color wasn't so bad. The gold on the frame really popped!
But I wanted to play with the color a bit more, I am not a fan of yellows that much... I was attracted to the color because of the name... acorn spice.
I went and bought a few more colors. Four more to be precise. And this is the collection so far.
See the color at the top on the right? Loving that for the bathroom. Just enough orange and gold to bring out the gold on the frame. On photo #2 it is the color to the left of the picture.
So here it is my tiny half bath on the bottom floor of our house. It is most commonly used by my kids. Next would be guests. Last would be AB and I. I want something pretty and elegant, a bit edgey and fun.
I never used to have a hard time picking paint colors, but I have seriously been all over the map with this room. Partly because I want a unified theme for the entire first floor. Specifically the office, foyer, dining room and half bath. I have lots of two toned woods, grey carpets that will hopefully see the curb this year in favor of hardwood and clayish, terra cotta-ish colored tile.
And this green foyer. The green foyer is going bye bye. I can't coordinate anything with it. It's killing me.
February is a short month, so I can tackle the half bath and get a start on my redecorate the front first level of the house.
I started with some brown/deep purple/plum colors. I want something a bit dramatic and am not overly concerned with making the space appear small. It is a half bathroom after all, it is never going to appear spacious.
The main color I was targeting was the one next to the mirror. (Don't you love the wooden mirror? I do.)
I went a tone or two softer to test because so many people said, "you can't go that dark in that room".
And well... maybe they were right. But I also couldn't do the mauve.
Back to square one.
One evening of after Christmas shopping I came across these iris paintings on a great clearance. And I love irises. Reminds me of living in Boulder and the iris field on Broadway as well as my wedding flower.
See in addition to the dark color and the mauve, I had also picked out an "acorn spice" color. When we put it on the wall we said, "ewww, breastfed baby poop". (The mustard on the right by the window. Yes, I will be replacing the valence.)
Then I put the picture up.
And suddenly the breastfed baby poop color wasn't so bad. The gold on the frame really popped!
But I wanted to play with the color a bit more, I am not a fan of yellows that much... I was attracted to the color because of the name... acorn spice.
I went and bought a few more colors. Four more to be precise. And this is the collection so far.
See the color at the top on the right? Loving that for the bathroom. Just enough orange and gold to bring out the gold on the frame. On photo #2 it is the color to the left of the picture.
See the brick color on the bottom? Loving that for my foyer. AB has issued a "we'll see about that" decree. (He still loves the green.)
So President's Day - a forced day off since the kids' school is closed - I hope to paint the bathroom. Then we will need new rugs, a new valence and I would like some decorative element to go on the little cabinet I have in there that holds the TP and all that stuff.
I had kind of hoped to piggy back on another goal this month. But it is seeming short enough as is. My March goal I am hoping to devote to backing my quilt and quilting it for spring use in the bedroom.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Kid-isms
Skadi-ism #1
“Ok parents,” she says.
We are “parents”.
We aren’t “mom and dad” or “mommy and daddy”.
Nope.
“Parents.”
“Parents, I want to know if you would like your children to sing you a song?”
“Parents, you should go in the other room and not look over here.”
“Parents, can I have a snack?”
---------------------
At a restaurant waiting for food. The kids have their complimentary crayons and placemat. Skadi is coloring away. Leif is writing words. He prints “fo” on his placemat.
AB: “That’s not a word.”
(I know where this is going. Leif is always writing fo as opposed to “of”.)
Leif: “Yes it is daddy.”
AB: “No it isn’t, it says fo. Fo isn’t a word.”
Leif (becoming insistent): “Yes daddy, it is a word!”
AB: “Ok, use it in a sentence.”
Leif: “Someone who isn’t a SuperHero friend is a foe!”
AB: (Silence.)
Me: “Take that daddy!”
----------------
Skadi has a knack for spinning yarns. She gets on a roll and it just doesn't stop.
Leif asked me what my name was before I got married and I told him my maiden name.
Skadi: "My name before I was in mommy's tummy was Vanya and I was a person who helped other people and made sure they were ok and I did good at my job. Then something happened and I don't know what it was and I was in my mommy's tummy."
Me: "Okaaaaaayyyyy..."
Leif: "Before I was in mommy's tummy, she was in her mommy's tummy and I was still in her tummy and all people are in tummys now."
Me: "Wow, this is deep." (Change subject fast.)
“Ok parents,” she says.
We are “parents”.
We aren’t “mom and dad” or “mommy and daddy”.
Nope.
“Parents.”
“Parents, I want to know if you would like your children to sing you a song?”
“Parents, you should go in the other room and not look over here.”
“Parents, can I have a snack?”
---------------------
At a restaurant waiting for food. The kids have their complimentary crayons and placemat. Skadi is coloring away. Leif is writing words. He prints “fo” on his placemat.
AB: “That’s not a word.”
(I know where this is going. Leif is always writing fo as opposed to “of”.)
Leif: “Yes it is daddy.”
AB: “No it isn’t, it says fo. Fo isn’t a word.”
Leif (becoming insistent): “Yes daddy, it is a word!”
AB: “Ok, use it in a sentence.”
Leif: “Someone who isn’t a SuperHero friend is a foe!”
AB: (Silence.)
Me: “Take that daddy!”
----------------
Skadi has a knack for spinning yarns. She gets on a roll and it just doesn't stop.
Leif asked me what my name was before I got married and I told him my maiden name.
Skadi: "My name before I was in mommy's tummy was Vanya and I was a person who helped other people and made sure they were ok and I did good at my job. Then something happened and I don't know what it was and I was in my mommy's tummy."
Me: "Okaaaaaayyyyy..."
Leif: "Before I was in mommy's tummy, she was in her mommy's tummy and I was still in her tummy and all people are in tummys now."
Me: "Wow, this is deep." (Change subject fast.)
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Things I suck at...
-Lying – seriously. I suck at this. I quiver and shake and my eyes start darting. I used to try to lie to my mom way back in high school and she would laugh at me. Now I look at Leif and see what she saw when she would look at me lying. Poor Leif is never going to get away with anything. (His sister, however, freaks me out with her amazing fibbing abilities. Her teachers have also marveled at her ability to pull one over on them.)
-History – I wish I knew more about history. But I don’t. I suck at it.
-Speaking Spanish – Yes, I know I had like 6 years of Spanish from Junior High through High School and I did at one point speak it fluently. I can understand Spanish, but I cannot any longer wrap my tongue around speaking it. (I have a Spanish speaking intern I am sharing with another colleague coming in and this concerns me a bit.)
-Baking – So maybe I don’t suck suck at it. I have a small repertoire of items I can bake. But baking is not my forte. Cooking a fabulous meal, yes.
-Growing indoor plants – I bought a lemon tree after a long hiatus of living in no plant land. They are messy and I just don’t like them. But dang, I wanted a lemon tree! Poor baby lemon tree…
-Cleaning – I suck at this. I also don’t like it. But mostly I suck at it. No wait… mostly I don’t like it… (Question – which came first, the chicken or the egg?)
-Meeting new people – I become a clam. I never know what to say. I get nervous. I worry that I will do something wrong. I worry what they will think of me. And I always come off wrong. Yes, I suck at meeting new people.
-Keeping a secret – Maybe I should caveat this… keeping a secret from my husband! I had a very exciting thing happen this last week. I made a wee tiny inquiry and received a fabulous response from someone regarding an anniversary gift for AB. And it is absolutely killing me to keep this secret. And I have to keep it for TWO FREAKING MONTHS. I am queen of ruining presents for him. This one I am not going to ruin. Nope, not going to spill the beans. Going to forget ALL about it.
Seriously. This is hard.
Yep, keeping secrets is my number one thing I suck at.
-History – I wish I knew more about history. But I don’t. I suck at it.
-Speaking Spanish – Yes, I know I had like 6 years of Spanish from Junior High through High School and I did at one point speak it fluently. I can understand Spanish, but I cannot any longer wrap my tongue around speaking it. (I have a Spanish speaking intern I am sharing with another colleague coming in and this concerns me a bit.)
-Baking – So maybe I don’t suck suck at it. I have a small repertoire of items I can bake. But baking is not my forte. Cooking a fabulous meal, yes.
-Growing indoor plants – I bought a lemon tree after a long hiatus of living in no plant land. They are messy and I just don’t like them. But dang, I wanted a lemon tree! Poor baby lemon tree…
-Cleaning – I suck at this. I also don’t like it. But mostly I suck at it. No wait… mostly I don’t like it… (Question – which came first, the chicken or the egg?)
-Meeting new people – I become a clam. I never know what to say. I get nervous. I worry that I will do something wrong. I worry what they will think of me. And I always come off wrong. Yes, I suck at meeting new people.
-Keeping a secret – Maybe I should caveat this… keeping a secret from my husband! I had a very exciting thing happen this last week. I made a wee tiny inquiry and received a fabulous response from someone regarding an anniversary gift for AB. And it is absolutely killing me to keep this secret. And I have to keep it for TWO FREAKING MONTHS. I am queen of ruining presents for him. This one I am not going to ruin. Nope, not going to spill the beans. Going to forget ALL about it.
Seriously. This is hard.
Yep, keeping secrets is my number one thing I suck at.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Winding down the month
As typical for most resolutioners, my first of the year goals are filled with lots of spunk and promise. Promises of an organized house, followed by a beautiful and elegant new half guest bathroom and lots of ideas to follow for the months after. Then by summer I am talking about taking months off because we are too busy. And goals over the holidays? Yeah right.
I wandered the Target aisles over lunch yesterday with AB… and no kids. He doesn’t work on Fridays and I met him for a quick and easy lunch and then to grab a few things.
I have been coveting some cute desk organizers for our office. I didn’t find much.
I haven’t found much online either.
The desk organization part of my January goals is not flying. I bought a little square caddy thing that can either lie on its side for cds, or sit upwards to hold – what I am thinking – pads of paper and midsize desk stuff. I bought a couple magazine storage containers. But I don’t need an In box or an Out box or alphabetical storage. We walk in the house through the garage and everything lands on the surface in the opposite corner of the house. Office type stuff often gets stored and organized in the kitchen first instead because of this. If I am looking for a piece of paper, I don’t go straight to my office. The kitchen is the first stop.
Our computer desk just raises a big question mark for me.
I think I did my shopping for organizing items prematurely. I think I should have cleaned off the desk, figured out what really needs to be there and then gone shopping. I knew we needed a pens container and I bought that. But it isn’t cute. In fact, I am already wondering if it would be better suited for Leif’s room and wondering if I would be better suited for a trip to Hobby Lobby?
Oh well. It’s on my list for the weekend, clear off the desk and organize. (Maybe go to Hobby Lobby…)
Today I worked on Leif’s mess of a closet. (A trip to Hobby Lobby would definitely serve as reward that effort…) Done. Finished. Whew. Not fun. Skadi has already started back to destroying it now that she can see all the fun things.
I am trying to finish out my January organization tactics before getting too amped about the downstairs half bath. But I found these… and I fell in love with them:
I love irises. Always have. There was an iris field in Boulder near my apartment in college that I loved. Irises were my wedding flower.
And oh, they were on sale. I got one for $36 and the other for $41. Yay me!
They are going to look spectacular in my bathroom! And now I have color inspiration for the lackluster room!
I wandered the Target aisles over lunch yesterday with AB… and no kids. He doesn’t work on Fridays and I met him for a quick and easy lunch and then to grab a few things.
I have been coveting some cute desk organizers for our office. I didn’t find much.
I haven’t found much online either.
The desk organization part of my January goals is not flying. I bought a little square caddy thing that can either lie on its side for cds, or sit upwards to hold – what I am thinking – pads of paper and midsize desk stuff. I bought a couple magazine storage containers. But I don’t need an In box or an Out box or alphabetical storage. We walk in the house through the garage and everything lands on the surface in the opposite corner of the house. Office type stuff often gets stored and organized in the kitchen first instead because of this. If I am looking for a piece of paper, I don’t go straight to my office. The kitchen is the first stop.
Our computer desk just raises a big question mark for me.
I think I did my shopping for organizing items prematurely. I think I should have cleaned off the desk, figured out what really needs to be there and then gone shopping. I knew we needed a pens container and I bought that. But it isn’t cute. In fact, I am already wondering if it would be better suited for Leif’s room and wondering if I would be better suited for a trip to Hobby Lobby?
Oh well. It’s on my list for the weekend, clear off the desk and organize. (Maybe go to Hobby Lobby…)
Today I worked on Leif’s mess of a closet. (A trip to Hobby Lobby would definitely serve as reward that effort…) Done. Finished. Whew. Not fun. Skadi has already started back to destroying it now that she can see all the fun things.
I am trying to finish out my January organization tactics before getting too amped about the downstairs half bath. But I found these… and I fell in love with them:
I love irises. Always have. There was an iris field in Boulder near my apartment in college that I loved. Irises were my wedding flower.
And oh, they were on sale. I got one for $36 and the other for $41. Yay me!
They are going to look spectacular in my bathroom! And now I have color inspiration for the lackluster room!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Stuff that lasts a lifetime? Or a lifetime of stuff?
The other day while skiing with AB, we were sitting on the ski lift (because our children were in ski school – yay ski school!) and he commented that all his ski gear was getting old. We had purchased nearly it all in Reno, which was 9 years ago. I looked at my stuff and felt a fondness.
There have been lots of articles out there lately about how purchases are not satisfying, they don’t fill ones soul, basically. I think in the down economy it is an attempt to make people feel better about not having the cash-oh-la to go out and buy buy buy. There is a lot of talk out there about reusing and what a wasteful society we have become. Disposable is bad.
I like shopping. I like stuff. I admit it.
My family likes stuff. My grandmother REALLY liked stuff. This last summer we cleaned (I use the term “we” loosely here) out her house as she went into an Alzheimer’s care facility. As a kid I thought she had loads of treasures. Turns out? She bought the cheapest stuff she could find. I found a little crystal tea service set that I loved – I don’t remember seeing it as a kid – it was stashed away in a secret spot. Very retro and fun looking, but missing a cup. I went to replacements.com and was a bit disappointed to find out I could only order the entire set, not just the missing cup. But then again, the entire set was $14. (And yes, I do still love it.)
This is the type of stuff my grandmother had. Depression era mindset, never spend money on luxuries for yourself, save everything. My mom, a few years ago, went to my grandmother’s house to help her clean stuff out and found an entire cabinet full of all the lotions and soaps she had ever given her for Mother’s Days, Christmas, her birthday.
“Why haven’t you used these?” my mom asked picking up the dusty, cruddy old bottles.
“I am saving them,” was her reply.
“For what?” my mom asked.
“To use,” she replied.
And I expect my mom rolled her eyes and left the conversation there. No one ever won arguments with my grandmother.
Lately I have been looking through my stuff with a bit of a critical eye given the articles and general opinion out there about buying new stuff, as well as combined with my recent experiences “helping” clean out my grandmother’s and my mom’s belongings.
My purchasing habits have changed over the last few years. I do still find joy in my older purchases though – the common consensus out there that purchases won’t fill your soul is a bit flawed I think.
My ski bibs and my ski gloves are two of these things. I truly believe that these two items will last my lifetime. High quality, good fitting and timeless items. Clarification, they will last my lifetime at my current level of commitment to skiing and cold weather activities, which is that I am a fair weather skier living in a warm-ish climate that is 2 hours 45 minutes drive to ski.
I bought my grandmother a good set of stacking stainless steel mixing bowls just like mine after she visited my house and commented a few times, “I wish I had a good set of bowls”. I love my stainless steel nesting bowls. They will be with me for life.
My kitchen items – I have a ton of kitchen stuff. But instead of replacing my $4.99 Woolworth special hand mixer that my grandmother bought for me with another of its type, I plan to get a Kitchen Aid hand mixer (in cocoa silver, in case you were wondering) and never ever have to replace it again.
This blog topic has been floating around in my head for a few weeks. And as I have walked around my house I have made mental note of the things I have purchased that will last a lifetime. What do I believe I have bought or been given that I will never have to replace?
And it isn’t always the most expensive things.
My ski bibs, for example. I think I bought them for $28 on clearance at Sierra Trading Post in Reno. But they ARE fabulous.
A few shirts/sweaters I have may go the distance. I have a few of those chunky wool sweaters that were so in style in Boulder in the 90’s. I love those still (shhh, don’t tell) and I expect they will go the distance if only because I don’t wear them currently – I would roast and well my colleagues might mistake me for a hippy. But a weekend in the mountains? Yes sir!
My hutch. Yes. My shelves that AB built me exactly 8 years ago. Yes. NOT the crappy dressers from Furniture Row. (I need to work on the furniture aspect of this mindset in my house.)
My All Clad griddle, my Le Creuset pieces (have I sung enough praises lately about my Dutch Oven and Skillet?), my Kitchen Aid Professional mixer has made it 10 years with no sign of decline.
My beautiful, lovely purse will last – especially if I continue to stop by the retailer I bought it from to swoon at other purses and random sales people continue to clean it and massage it with lotion for me.
Years ago as a shopper I sought quantity. I need to outfit a kitchen, what do I need? I want a new work wardrobe, what should I buy?
Now as a shopper, I seek quality. I don’t always want to pay the prices for quality, I am a danged good sale shopper. Retailmenot.com is my best friend in online shopping.
I wonder if it seems morbid to ponder if something will last my lifetime? But I plan on living a long, long time.
Age 108 here I come with my Le Creuset and Coach purse!
There have been lots of articles out there lately about how purchases are not satisfying, they don’t fill ones soul, basically. I think in the down economy it is an attempt to make people feel better about not having the cash-oh-la to go out and buy buy buy. There is a lot of talk out there about reusing and what a wasteful society we have become. Disposable is bad.
I like shopping. I like stuff. I admit it.
My family likes stuff. My grandmother REALLY liked stuff. This last summer we cleaned (I use the term “we” loosely here) out her house as she went into an Alzheimer’s care facility. As a kid I thought she had loads of treasures. Turns out? She bought the cheapest stuff she could find. I found a little crystal tea service set that I loved – I don’t remember seeing it as a kid – it was stashed away in a secret spot. Very retro and fun looking, but missing a cup. I went to replacements.com and was a bit disappointed to find out I could only order the entire set, not just the missing cup. But then again, the entire set was $14. (And yes, I do still love it.)
This is the type of stuff my grandmother had. Depression era mindset, never spend money on luxuries for yourself, save everything. My mom, a few years ago, went to my grandmother’s house to help her clean stuff out and found an entire cabinet full of all the lotions and soaps she had ever given her for Mother’s Days, Christmas, her birthday.
“Why haven’t you used these?” my mom asked picking up the dusty, cruddy old bottles.
“I am saving them,” was her reply.
“For what?” my mom asked.
“To use,” she replied.
And I expect my mom rolled her eyes and left the conversation there. No one ever won arguments with my grandmother.
Lately I have been looking through my stuff with a bit of a critical eye given the articles and general opinion out there about buying new stuff, as well as combined with my recent experiences “helping” clean out my grandmother’s and my mom’s belongings.
My purchasing habits have changed over the last few years. I do still find joy in my older purchases though – the common consensus out there that purchases won’t fill your soul is a bit flawed I think.
My ski bibs and my ski gloves are two of these things. I truly believe that these two items will last my lifetime. High quality, good fitting and timeless items. Clarification, they will last my lifetime at my current level of commitment to skiing and cold weather activities, which is that I am a fair weather skier living in a warm-ish climate that is 2 hours 45 minutes drive to ski.
I bought my grandmother a good set of stacking stainless steel mixing bowls just like mine after she visited my house and commented a few times, “I wish I had a good set of bowls”. I love my stainless steel nesting bowls. They will be with me for life.
My kitchen items – I have a ton of kitchen stuff. But instead of replacing my $4.99 Woolworth special hand mixer that my grandmother bought for me with another of its type, I plan to get a Kitchen Aid hand mixer (in cocoa silver, in case you were wondering) and never ever have to replace it again.
This blog topic has been floating around in my head for a few weeks. And as I have walked around my house I have made mental note of the things I have purchased that will last a lifetime. What do I believe I have bought or been given that I will never have to replace?
And it isn’t always the most expensive things.
My ski bibs, for example. I think I bought them for $28 on clearance at Sierra Trading Post in Reno. But they ARE fabulous.
A few shirts/sweaters I have may go the distance. I have a few of those chunky wool sweaters that were so in style in Boulder in the 90’s. I love those still (shhh, don’t tell) and I expect they will go the distance if only because I don’t wear them currently – I would roast and well my colleagues might mistake me for a hippy. But a weekend in the mountains? Yes sir!
My hutch. Yes. My shelves that AB built me exactly 8 years ago. Yes. NOT the crappy dressers from Furniture Row. (I need to work on the furniture aspect of this mindset in my house.)
My All Clad griddle, my Le Creuset pieces (have I sung enough praises lately about my Dutch Oven and Skillet?), my Kitchen Aid Professional mixer has made it 10 years with no sign of decline.
My beautiful, lovely purse will last – especially if I continue to stop by the retailer I bought it from to swoon at other purses and random sales people continue to clean it and massage it with lotion for me.
Years ago as a shopper I sought quantity. I need to outfit a kitchen, what do I need? I want a new work wardrobe, what should I buy?
Now as a shopper, I seek quality. I don’t always want to pay the prices for quality, I am a danged good sale shopper. Retailmenot.com is my best friend in online shopping.
I wonder if it seems morbid to ponder if something will last my lifetime? But I plan on living a long, long time.
Age 108 here I come with my Le Creuset and Coach purse!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
January Goals Update
It is almost halfway through January, so I figured it was time to update my goals!
Goal #1 – Organization Needs
I have addressed a few of my organization needs throughout the house.
Recycling Bin – Done – I bought a neat big basket from Target that seems to be doing the job – as long as I continually remind the occupants of the house to RINSE out the containers and BREAK DOWN the cardboard.
Dog Food – Purchased today! Who knew that Amazon was THE place to go? I have had a horrible time lately finding anything I need on Amazon and with Prime shipping. (Leif ski gloves, hello? Hello?) Anyways, I got a nice rolling bin AND a scoop. The rolling bin will be super because I have two dogs who cannot eat together. Unless you want to listen to growling. I mean you each have your own bowl, what is the big deal? Fill one bowl, roll the bin over and fill the other. And for $21.
Stairs – Did these. Found some cute leather containers that sit at the foot of the stairs. Now if I could just get some small people to empty them…
The Wii stuff – I bought an el cheapo storage ottoman. Ottoman for someone who has small feet or butt – whatever you are supposed to put on an ottoman. Anyways, it actually looks halfway decent and fits perfectly save for the Wii lightsabers – which are never used. For some reason Leif doesn’t actually like them, go figure.
Shelves in the kids’ room – Done and I am thinking both kids might need a few more shelves since I really only addressed the stuff that was sitting out in their rooms and not the box of breakable stuff still packed up in Leif’s closet.
The desk in the office - it is a nice big open flat space with stacks of stuff. Seriously in need of some pen holders and desk organizers and the like. This is still pending. And it is pending me finding some NEAT and in the colors I have selected for the paint accessories. So, this is pending…
SO this was the stuff I set out to tackle in December. I did a few more things too – we got a Hobby Lobby recently. Yay us! Anyways, I bought a nice, large leather tray for my peninsula in the kitchen. It is the stacking place, the landing place. I have tried tactics to minimize this and I have finally just embraced it. The tray at least makes it look a little nicer. Or better yet, when I need it to look nice quickly, it can be done.
I have additional organizational needs. They just keep popping up.
The tops of my and AB’s dressers in our rooms. And the area next to our nightstands. Our nightstands actually hold a lot. But we still have stuff stacked. I am halfway wondering though if I don’t need to devote an entire month to the needs of our Master bedroom… I am not sure 2 weeks can do it justice and I fear I really need a more functional piece of furniture there. AB tonight told me it didn't just need a piece of furniture, it needs all new furniture and by the way, why have we never had a bed frame?
Leif’s closet. The poor child can’t even walk into it – the largest closet in the house. Now it is his fault for dumping his stuff in the doorway. But we need to fix this. THIS IS on the schedule for one of the last two weekends of the month. It shouldn’t really take purchasing anything, just some organization time.
My closet. Specifically my clothes. I have a thing with buying more. I just bought a boatload on after Christmas uber-clearance. Like seriously a sweater originally priced for $150 that I bought for $24. I hate to even admit that last week, I found a pair of really cute cords. Found them. As in forgot I even bought them last year. I need to ruthlessly purge my closet. Who knows what treasures I will find.
Goal #2 Paint Colors
We are working the paint thing. Working and working it. AB and I have narrowed into a color scheme, now it is just a matter of testing said colors and then deciding where to put them - and where to stop. Very difficult in a foyer that is two stories tall. And if you know AB you will not be surprised to hear that the word "scaffold" has come up with enthusiasm. I know. Scary.
Goal #1 – Organization Needs
I have addressed a few of my organization needs throughout the house.
Recycling Bin – Done – I bought a neat big basket from Target that seems to be doing the job – as long as I continually remind the occupants of the house to RINSE out the containers and BREAK DOWN the cardboard.
Dog Food – Purchased today! Who knew that Amazon was THE place to go? I have had a horrible time lately finding anything I need on Amazon and with Prime shipping. (Leif ski gloves, hello? Hello?) Anyways, I got a nice rolling bin AND a scoop. The rolling bin will be super because I have two dogs who cannot eat together. Unless you want to listen to growling. I mean you each have your own bowl, what is the big deal? Fill one bowl, roll the bin over and fill the other. And for $21.
Stairs – Did these. Found some cute leather containers that sit at the foot of the stairs. Now if I could just get some small people to empty them…
The Wii stuff – I bought an el cheapo storage ottoman. Ottoman for someone who has small feet or butt – whatever you are supposed to put on an ottoman. Anyways, it actually looks halfway decent and fits perfectly save for the Wii lightsabers – which are never used. For some reason Leif doesn’t actually like them, go figure.
Shelves in the kids’ room – Done and I am thinking both kids might need a few more shelves since I really only addressed the stuff that was sitting out in their rooms and not the box of breakable stuff still packed up in Leif’s closet.
The desk in the office - it is a nice big open flat space with stacks of stuff. Seriously in need of some pen holders and desk organizers and the like. This is still pending. And it is pending me finding some NEAT and in the colors I have selected for the paint accessories. So, this is pending…
SO this was the stuff I set out to tackle in December. I did a few more things too – we got a Hobby Lobby recently. Yay us! Anyways, I bought a nice, large leather tray for my peninsula in the kitchen. It is the stacking place, the landing place. I have tried tactics to minimize this and I have finally just embraced it. The tray at least makes it look a little nicer. Or better yet, when I need it to look nice quickly, it can be done.
I have additional organizational needs. They just keep popping up.
The tops of my and AB’s dressers in our rooms. And the area next to our nightstands. Our nightstands actually hold a lot. But we still have stuff stacked. I am halfway wondering though if I don’t need to devote an entire month to the needs of our Master bedroom… I am not sure 2 weeks can do it justice and I fear I really need a more functional piece of furniture there. AB tonight told me it didn't just need a piece of furniture, it needs all new furniture and by the way, why have we never had a bed frame?
Leif’s closet. The poor child can’t even walk into it – the largest closet in the house. Now it is his fault for dumping his stuff in the doorway. But we need to fix this. THIS IS on the schedule for one of the last two weekends of the month. It shouldn’t really take purchasing anything, just some organization time.
My closet. Specifically my clothes. I have a thing with buying more. I just bought a boatload on after Christmas uber-clearance. Like seriously a sweater originally priced for $150 that I bought for $24. I hate to even admit that last week, I found a pair of really cute cords. Found them. As in forgot I even bought them last year. I need to ruthlessly purge my closet. Who knows what treasures I will find.
Goal #2 Paint Colors
We are working the paint thing. Working and working it. AB and I have narrowed into a color scheme, now it is just a matter of testing said colors and then deciding where to put them - and where to stop. Very difficult in a foyer that is two stories tall. And if you know AB you will not be surprised to hear that the word "scaffold" has come up with enthusiasm. I know. Scary.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
My husband, the beggar
We were in Costco on Saturday and AB had gone to fetch food for the kids to eat in the cart on the run. We shop, they eat. Works out great.
We are nearly halfway through the store - the VERY packed store, mind you - and I say to the kids, "I wonder where your dad is?"
Leif: "He is probably up at the front of the store begging for money," he replies matter of factly.
Me: "What?" I am positive I didn't hear him right.
Leif: "I bet he is begging for money again."
Me: "What are you talking about?" (Stifling the laughter and confusion.)
Leif: "He begged for money a few weeks ago. He is probably doing this again."
Mind you, we are in a very busy store and it isn't like Leif is whispering this. Nope, he is announcing it to the entire store. And it was no use convincing him he was mistaken, so I dropped it.
Later that evening I told AB about the comments and he (in between laughter and confusion) called Leif in to explain.
Leif: "You remember daddy, it was a few weeks ago, but you said, 'give me some money' and the lady gave you some money and there were chickens squaking too."
AB: "WHAT? What in the THE WORLD are you talking about?"
Leif: "Dad, you were being a beggar. You told the woman to give you money and she did and there were chickens."
AB: "Was this a dream? This had to be a dream."
Leif: (Getting annoyed.) "No dad, you remember! It was not a dream, you begged for money the other day!"
AB: "Wait a second... was this when we went to the store and I bought a candybar and asked for money back?"
AB does this. He doesn't like to drive all the way to the BofA ATM and doesn't want to pay $2 to use a nonbank ATM. So he goes into the grocery store, buys something in the checkstand and gets his cash.
Leif: "You asked the woman for money and she gave it to you! You were begging for money dad."
AB: (Huge sigh.) "No, that isn't really what happened."
No telling what daycare thinks of us.
(Oh and we haven't figured out the squeaky chicken aspect yet.)
We are nearly halfway through the store - the VERY packed store, mind you - and I say to the kids, "I wonder where your dad is?"
Leif: "He is probably up at the front of the store begging for money," he replies matter of factly.
Me: "What?" I am positive I didn't hear him right.
Leif: "I bet he is begging for money again."
Me: "What are you talking about?" (Stifling the laughter and confusion.)
Leif: "He begged for money a few weeks ago. He is probably doing this again."
Mind you, we are in a very busy store and it isn't like Leif is whispering this. Nope, he is announcing it to the entire store. And it was no use convincing him he was mistaken, so I dropped it.
Later that evening I told AB about the comments and he (in between laughter and confusion) called Leif in to explain.
Leif: "You remember daddy, it was a few weeks ago, but you said, 'give me some money' and the lady gave you some money and there were chickens squaking too."
AB: "WHAT? What in the THE WORLD are you talking about?"
Leif: "Dad, you were being a beggar. You told the woman to give you money and she did and there were chickens."
AB: "Was this a dream? This had to be a dream."
Leif: (Getting annoyed.) "No dad, you remember! It was not a dream, you begged for money the other day!"
AB: "Wait a second... was this when we went to the store and I bought a candybar and asked for money back?"
AB does this. He doesn't like to drive all the way to the BofA ATM and doesn't want to pay $2 to use a nonbank ATM. So he goes into the grocery store, buys something in the checkstand and gets his cash.
Leif: "You asked the woman for money and she gave it to you! You were begging for money dad."
AB: (Huge sigh.) "No, that isn't really what happened."
No telling what daycare thinks of us.
(Oh and we haven't figured out the squeaky chicken aspect yet.)
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Reflections of book club and of 39 years of life
I love my book club.
We have been together for 5.5 years (I think... or is it 6.5 years?) I think it is 5.5 years because I am pretty sure my son was just shy of one year. It is a great core group of women. One of my best friends suggested starting it to my other best friend and myself way back when. We each invited 2-3 women and wa la. Here we are 5.5 years later.
Last night we noted that it was our original core group of women. We have added to the group, but it is interesting to me that none of the newer additions seem to have as strong of a commitment to the group and I am not sure why. I wonder if those of us there from the start just had a stronger investment? Or if we failed in making other people feel welcome? Or maybe some of both.
Last night I failed to even buy the book. I had excellent intentions actually, but the book I was reading, "The Girl Who Played With Fire" just kept going on and on. And I am not one of those people who can successfully read two books at once. I must finish one before starting another.
The book was The Alchemist and I did read a primer and a few spoilers and reviews on the book before going to book club so that I wasn't completely clueless. But yes, I did a lot of smiling and nodding. As the conversation went on I actually did have a lot of thoughts to add based off of the flow of conversation, though I didn't so much because it isn't my thing to jump in and yap about a book I didn't read. I was there just to enjoy the company.
Thoughts on the book were all over the place, from one woman who absolutely loved the book and would put it in her top two (or did she say five) to others who said, "eh". That's par for the course with our book club. We rarely get across the board agreement on a book, yet we all still love each other.
A few of the thoughts really resonated with me. How do you move throughout your life? How do you make the decisions you make? Why do you make the decisions you make? Are there omens? Are there signs? What if you get to the end of your life and well, it sucked? Are you the only one to blame? Is that because you were ignoring the signs? What is happiness in life?
Huge questions.
The woman who loved the book made me want to read it most when she talked about how in her life, she goes along a bit and then evaluates - "am I happy?" If yes, great. If not, "how do I make it better? How do I fix it?" Then make it happen.
I can completely identify with this.
When I was growing up and through college I let things happen. I rarely made things happen for myself. Things just happened around me. I followed the crowd, I did what others did. If it made them happy, certainly it would make me happy, right? I majored in chemistry because I did well in it, not because I loved lab class (though I fell in love with my lab partner).
I think I got this from my parents. They are/were both great people, but they were young when I was little. Things happened to them, and while they both got better at making things happen for themselves as they got older, my early formative years saw them as being thrown around by circumstances and not in charge of the circumstances.
It wasn't until I graduated from college, worked for a year, applied (unsuccessfully) to grad schools my advisor told me to apply to, that I really realized it was up to me to pick myself up, quit whining about things that have happened to me - because really, I had a great upbringing and life and a future wide open to me - and make things happen for me.
I applied to grad school again and picked myself up and moved a few states away to a mid-range school that seemed to fit. It was the single hardest thing I have ever done, but really my first jumping off point.
Many of my decisions have been gut reactions. What feels right? Then do it.
I have had to remind myself a few times to take the reigns and make things happen for myself. I can only really rely on myself to know and do what is right for me.
I have talked a few times before about making decisions to change course, to make myself happier, to move myself in a different direction. I have recently made another move in life to make things just a smidge better. I finally realized that in my career I have been doing what is expected of me as a scientist. What my mentor a few years ago wanted for me. I kept ignoring and denying a direction that was popping up for me.
In October I decided to listen to that inner voice and make the step to follow a different career path. I went and talked to a few people who have since jumped onto my team and have encouraged me to follow a new path and have even gone so far as to put me into positions to enable me to further this career path.
I look at my path since leaving Colorado for grad school and I have to say, it just keeps getting better. 39 years so far (that realization is starting to hurt my gut), 15 years of following my heart and wow.
Who knew it could be so good?
We have been together for 5.5 years (I think... or is it 6.5 years?) I think it is 5.5 years because I am pretty sure my son was just shy of one year. It is a great core group of women. One of my best friends suggested starting it to my other best friend and myself way back when. We each invited 2-3 women and wa la. Here we are 5.5 years later.
Last night we noted that it was our original core group of women. We have added to the group, but it is interesting to me that none of the newer additions seem to have as strong of a commitment to the group and I am not sure why. I wonder if those of us there from the start just had a stronger investment? Or if we failed in making other people feel welcome? Or maybe some of both.
Last night I failed to even buy the book. I had excellent intentions actually, but the book I was reading, "The Girl Who Played With Fire" just kept going on and on. And I am not one of those people who can successfully read two books at once. I must finish one before starting another.
The book was The Alchemist and I did read a primer and a few spoilers and reviews on the book before going to book club so that I wasn't completely clueless. But yes, I did a lot of smiling and nodding. As the conversation went on I actually did have a lot of thoughts to add based off of the flow of conversation, though I didn't so much because it isn't my thing to jump in and yap about a book I didn't read. I was there just to enjoy the company.
Thoughts on the book were all over the place, from one woman who absolutely loved the book and would put it in her top two (or did she say five) to others who said, "eh". That's par for the course with our book club. We rarely get across the board agreement on a book, yet we all still love each other.
A few of the thoughts really resonated with me. How do you move throughout your life? How do you make the decisions you make? Why do you make the decisions you make? Are there omens? Are there signs? What if you get to the end of your life and well, it sucked? Are you the only one to blame? Is that because you were ignoring the signs? What is happiness in life?
Huge questions.
The woman who loved the book made me want to read it most when she talked about how in her life, she goes along a bit and then evaluates - "am I happy?" If yes, great. If not, "how do I make it better? How do I fix it?" Then make it happen.
I can completely identify with this.
When I was growing up and through college I let things happen. I rarely made things happen for myself. Things just happened around me. I followed the crowd, I did what others did. If it made them happy, certainly it would make me happy, right? I majored in chemistry because I did well in it, not because I loved lab class (though I fell in love with my lab partner).
I think I got this from my parents. They are/were both great people, but they were young when I was little. Things happened to them, and while they both got better at making things happen for themselves as they got older, my early formative years saw them as being thrown around by circumstances and not in charge of the circumstances.
It wasn't until I graduated from college, worked for a year, applied (unsuccessfully) to grad schools my advisor told me to apply to, that I really realized it was up to me to pick myself up, quit whining about things that have happened to me - because really, I had a great upbringing and life and a future wide open to me - and make things happen for me.
I applied to grad school again and picked myself up and moved a few states away to a mid-range school that seemed to fit. It was the single hardest thing I have ever done, but really my first jumping off point.
Many of my decisions have been gut reactions. What feels right? Then do it.
I have had to remind myself a few times to take the reigns and make things happen for myself. I can only really rely on myself to know and do what is right for me.
I have talked a few times before about making decisions to change course, to make myself happier, to move myself in a different direction. I have recently made another move in life to make things just a smidge better. I finally realized that in my career I have been doing what is expected of me as a scientist. What my mentor a few years ago wanted for me. I kept ignoring and denying a direction that was popping up for me.
In October I decided to listen to that inner voice and make the step to follow a different career path. I went and talked to a few people who have since jumped onto my team and have encouraged me to follow a new path and have even gone so far as to put me into positions to enable me to further this career path.
I look at my path since leaving Colorado for grad school and I have to say, it just keeps getting better. 39 years so far (that realization is starting to hurt my gut), 15 years of following my heart and wow.
Who knew it could be so good?
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Help?
I need help with one of my January goals. It’s the paint colors one.
AB and I went bold and had no problems selecting colors in our other house. Unfortunately I am having a serious problem with selecting colors in our new house. The kids’ rooms, no problem. Our entryway? Gah.
I have been playing with the behr.com site, but my biggest issue there it seems is that I cannot share with you the colors I have selected. No copy and paste allowed.
Ok, so my foyer area is painted “Egyptian Nile”, it is a deep green. I liked it at the time, but have to admit it isn’t sticking with me. And there is some part of me that wants to scrap that color altogether so that my palatte can start new. Because trying to coordinate all my other adjoining areas with Egyptian Nile is giving me a headache. The Egyptian Nile is the reason I cannot commit to anything. About the only coordinating color I can come up with is shades of grey and frankly, grey isn’t tripping my trigger.
Oh yes, this blog was going to be about selecting colors for my half bath.
I need inspiration! I want something slightly funky, slightly sophisticated, not stuffy, a bit edgy and that will match ANYTHING I decide to do to the foyer/office/dining room.
Make sense?
Small half bath with a beautiful deep mahogany framed mirror (that I love) and white white toilet and pedestal sink, mirror finish stainless fixtures. The lights are good too. Floor is a clayish terra cotta colored 18” tile.
Go forth and bring back ideas!
AB and I went bold and had no problems selecting colors in our other house. Unfortunately I am having a serious problem with selecting colors in our new house. The kids’ rooms, no problem. Our entryway? Gah.
I have been playing with the behr.com site, but my biggest issue there it seems is that I cannot share with you the colors I have selected. No copy and paste allowed.
Ok, so my foyer area is painted “Egyptian Nile”, it is a deep green. I liked it at the time, but have to admit it isn’t sticking with me. And there is some part of me that wants to scrap that color altogether so that my palatte can start new. Because trying to coordinate all my other adjoining areas with Egyptian Nile is giving me a headache. The Egyptian Nile is the reason I cannot commit to anything. About the only coordinating color I can come up with is shades of grey and frankly, grey isn’t tripping my trigger.
Oh yes, this blog was going to be about selecting colors for my half bath.
I need inspiration! I want something slightly funky, slightly sophisticated, not stuffy, a bit edgy and that will match ANYTHING I decide to do to the foyer/office/dining room.
Make sense?
Small half bath with a beautiful deep mahogany framed mirror (that I love) and white white toilet and pedestal sink, mirror finish stainless fixtures. The lights are good too. Floor is a clayish terra cotta colored 18” tile.
Go forth and bring back ideas!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Making allowances
I deluded myself that this date was coming anytime soon. I bragged on Facebook that *my* son hadn’t asked for allowance yet.
I should really learn that this type of thing never results in anything good and only ensures that my days are numbered.
Last night as he was getting ready for bed Leif said he wanted to earn some money.
“Maybe,” he suggested, “we could make a chart of things I can do and when I do them, I can earn money?”
See sticker charts and the like have never gone over well in our house. When Leif was little we tried sticker charts for behavior. He just didn’t get them. He didn’t want to put a beloved sticker on a piece of paper, nor by any means, in a box! My friends reminded me, “well it doesn’t *have* to go in the box… you could just count stickers”.
Nope, didn’t work. He didn’t want to put the sticker not only in the box, but on a random piece of paper. He would rather hoard it somewhere unknown, for some future use. (I get it, I have this problem too, it is why my Halloween candy used to go uneaten, why I have bars of great smelling soaps in my linen closet… I save things.)
Then Skadi came along and we decided to try the sticker charts again.
It went moderately better with Skadi, but the biggest issue became that I sucked at making sticker charts. I didn’t have time to sit there with a piece of pretty paper and a ruler. Fine, I resorted to Excel. I printed up a few, but then would get busy and forget to print up more. And invariably the titles of tasks changed. And she couldn’t read anyways. I sucked.
We ended up with a piece of paper covered with stickers – every inch, of that piece of paper covered with stickers.
Finally I read a post from a friend on Facebook that talked about using marbles and jars. The kids earn marbles for random things. If I see a good act of kindness from one of them I often announce, “very nice, you may go get a marble for your jar”. If they are fighting and generally being mean I threaten to remove a marble, and then very often, I actually do remove a marble and then live with the crying and screaming and flailing that happens after a marble loss.
And funny thing – this has been ongoing for months now. Leif is saving his marbles for a trip to Chuckee Cheese. (Oh joy.) Skadi hasn’t really honed in on anything. Collecting the marbles is enough for her at this point.
So when Leif suggested we do a chart, I balked a little. I am organized at work and love my charts and lists. At home? My organization sucks. Why would I come home and make charts when I do them at work all the time?
I pulled AB into Leif’s bedroom and we all agreed that we don’t pay for things that he needs to do on a regular basis. Clearing his plate, brushing his teeth, doing our Wednesday night pick up? Those things don’t get marbles and we won’t pay for them either.
Now things like cleaning the cat box? Folding his clothes? Taking out the trash (I think he is getting big enough to flip open the dumpster lid and throw the bag in…)? Sure thing. We will pay for those.
Or that is the plan.
I found a quick template in Excel for a chore chart and modified it for our purposes and printed it up.
Nope, I don’t have high hopes.
But I, for now, have one motivated to earn money little boy.
I should really learn that this type of thing never results in anything good and only ensures that my days are numbered.
Last night as he was getting ready for bed Leif said he wanted to earn some money.
“Maybe,” he suggested, “we could make a chart of things I can do and when I do them, I can earn money?”
See sticker charts and the like have never gone over well in our house. When Leif was little we tried sticker charts for behavior. He just didn’t get them. He didn’t want to put a beloved sticker on a piece of paper, nor by any means, in a box! My friends reminded me, “well it doesn’t *have* to go in the box… you could just count stickers”.
Nope, didn’t work. He didn’t want to put the sticker not only in the box, but on a random piece of paper. He would rather hoard it somewhere unknown, for some future use. (I get it, I have this problem too, it is why my Halloween candy used to go uneaten, why I have bars of great smelling soaps in my linen closet… I save things.)
Then Skadi came along and we decided to try the sticker charts again.
It went moderately better with Skadi, but the biggest issue became that I sucked at making sticker charts. I didn’t have time to sit there with a piece of pretty paper and a ruler. Fine, I resorted to Excel. I printed up a few, but then would get busy and forget to print up more. And invariably the titles of tasks changed. And she couldn’t read anyways. I sucked.
We ended up with a piece of paper covered with stickers – every inch, of that piece of paper covered with stickers.
Finally I read a post from a friend on Facebook that talked about using marbles and jars. The kids earn marbles for random things. If I see a good act of kindness from one of them I often announce, “very nice, you may go get a marble for your jar”. If they are fighting and generally being mean I threaten to remove a marble, and then very often, I actually do remove a marble and then live with the crying and screaming and flailing that happens after a marble loss.
And funny thing – this has been ongoing for months now. Leif is saving his marbles for a trip to Chuckee Cheese. (Oh joy.) Skadi hasn’t really honed in on anything. Collecting the marbles is enough for her at this point.
So when Leif suggested we do a chart, I balked a little. I am organized at work and love my charts and lists. At home? My organization sucks. Why would I come home and make charts when I do them at work all the time?
I pulled AB into Leif’s bedroom and we all agreed that we don’t pay for things that he needs to do on a regular basis. Clearing his plate, brushing his teeth, doing our Wednesday night pick up? Those things don’t get marbles and we won’t pay for them either.
Now things like cleaning the cat box? Folding his clothes? Taking out the trash (I think he is getting big enough to flip open the dumpster lid and throw the bag in…)? Sure thing. We will pay for those.
Or that is the plan.
I found a quick template in Excel for a chore chart and modified it for our purposes and printed it up.
Nope, I don’t have high hopes.
But I, for now, have one motivated to earn money little boy.
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