Heptadecagon

Zoe and Talia turn 10 today. I remember feeling, last year, that I needed to make every moment with them count, and since the year went fast, I guess I better get going. It seems so unreal that my little ladies can be 10. The girls asked me this morning if they would feel any different, and while I said probably not, I think it is because I can't really remember what turning 10 felt like. I remember turning 10, which at the time it was a big deal, but did I feel different? Really, I just don't know. I don't have the right words to convey to the girls what I hope they gained from the first decade of their life, nor can I tell them what I'd like for them to garner in the decades to come. But I can say this: it has been a privilege and a joy to be blessed with two little, funny, beautiful, kind, generous, smart, lovable, identical yet not, girls like them. I would have never thought it possible to love anyone as much as I love them (and of course, their siblings),

If you know anything about me, you know that I believe homework to be important. You probably also know that I don't think our kids get enough homework. While I do not think simple busy work is necessary, I do believe that practicing what you are learning is integral to actually succeeding. I certainly wouldn't watch someone tell me how to run 26.2 miles, and then think I could do it without practice. And, I wouldn't even try to play a piano concerto by only going to piano lessons once a week. In my mind, practicing what you are learning is tantamount to mastering the subject. The teachers have said that with all of the things they do during the day, they don't feel that homework is important. The principal, who is in his second year at the school and is working hard to keep a standard of excellence for the school, has up until now, supported the teachers. However, Mr. C is open to comments and suggestions. Plus, he and I so far have a good rapport. It isn't

I have had a headache for much of the past 4 days. I don't usually get headaches, unless I am dehydrated or hungry, neither of which applies in this case. I have had a sinus headache before, the type where you want to pound your head against the wall. But I don't have a cold, and my teeth and cheeks aren't hurting either. Perhaps it is the weather, or the fact that my hormones might be cycling differently these days. I don't have an answer, and I don't expect you to have one. But on a day like this -- when my head hurts, the cats have already destroyed the basement again, and the rain is falling quickly -- I'd like to crawl back into bed and not come out. As I pulled out of the driveway to bring Melina to school, I had to stop myself from pulling back into the garage. The only thing that kept me going forward was the fact that I was expected to help with 4th grade this morning. If not for that, I would have called Melina's school, told them she would

So. I have mentioned many a time that we have cats. Usually, when they do something wrong, I sit here before the computer, vent, and move on. At this point, though, I am tired of my cats, and stand at a crossroad. I hate to say that I might slip with a lovely overdose of insulin, but as wicked as that sounds, I just might. These two critters, my once beloved Lucy and Ferdinand, are actually driving me bananas. Here is the short list of their egregious (and repetitive) errors: Urinating on the basement carpet, and not in the litter box. Defecating on the basement carpet, and not in the litter box. Vomiting just about anywhere, and of course, not in the litter box. You might say that we should just train them to clean it all up, but that ain't happening. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired from cleaning up after these cats. I think they do these things to make me angry, or to tell me that they are angry. Here is why I think they might be angry: One of them urinated outs

This was my conversation with Zoe last night. Z: Mom, I think I might need deodorant for gym class days. Me: You do? Why do you think that? Z: Um, because I get all sweaty and then I stink. Me: You do? How do you know? Z: Well, I sniffed myself. Me: Okay, well. Let me sniff. Z: Okay. [Zoe lifts up her arm, and I sniff.] Me: Yep, you do. Z: [Smile] Me: [Freak] Neither Zoe nor Talia argued with me this morning when I asked them to take a quick shower before getting ready for school. In fact, they were more than willing. And when I gave them my deodorant (I later went to the store and got them each their own), a smile spread across each of their faces, an epic smile , as those two are wont to say. This growing up thing? I am not ready for it, that is for sure. And those two? Well, I think they just might be.

I used to like Monday mornings. Yes, my feelings went against the consensus, but I did. The kids would go off to school, and I could start on my week. The quarter I taught on Monday mornings was a bit difficult because I felt like I started the week running instead of walking. But aside from that, Monday and a new week were always somewhat exciting. Until recently. Now, Monday mornings have become the bane of my existence. For a multitude of reasons (which might be discussed in another post), including the very loud snoring of my wonderful husband, I haven't been sleeping well. And then, Monday morning comes too soon. The kids come down, a bit after I've literally stumbled out of bed, and the questions start. What is for breakfast? Have you seen my bag? Mom, are you coming for math centers today? What is evolution? How do our kidneys work and what do they do? And what about organ transplants? Seriously, all of those questions have been posed on a Monday morning.

Kelsey wanted to know if I was going to share what I actually did all day . While it doesn't make for the most interesting of reads, my list might actually make you feel better about yourself. Please remember that I did not mention any bathroom time for myself. (And I must have forgotten about Shadow's bathroom time, as he appears nowhere on this list. I know he didn't hold it all day!) Also, you might say that I wrote some items down twice. But if I put away dishes from the drainer two times, at different times of the day, then those are completely separate instances. Therefore, put away dishes would be recorded twice. Furthermore, you might say, once you've read my list, that it was exhaustive. It was. When I made dinner, I broke the act of making dinner into the individual things I had to do. However, I thought that maybe the person that requested my list wanted me to account for every minute of the day. And so I did. And here you have it: Get dressed. Ma

In the Things I thought I'd Never Say category: "Melina, you need to stop flinging your hair. If you can't stop, I'll cut it off." The flinging is the part that got to me. The action was sort of a combination of tossing and flicking, all of which just downright annoyed me. In the Things I Thought I'd Never Hear category: "You know, Mom, it is really hard to move walls." You think? In the Things I Thought I'd Never See category: Aaron, dressed as a sumo wrestler. He used a scarf to fashion a loincloth. I think it might be called a mawashi. Tim wouldn't let me take pictures. Brief post today. I'm trying to make up for the last one!

The unfortunate death of a little girl at a school on January 3 made me realize that I never put my two cents out here on a book I recently read. If you want to read articles about the little girl, Ammaria Johnson, aged 7, you can find them anywhere on the web. I don't want to trivialize this little girl's life, or her death, but I also don't actually have the facts, so I hesitate to put anything here on the blog. I would like to say, though, that it seems as if her death could have been easily prevented. Ammaria had food allergies, specifically, she died from a peanut allergy. According to some websites, a friend gave her a peanut on the playground, the school didn't have the correct medicine to deal with it, and she died. I don't mean to sound judgmental. I am not the authority on any allergy, but I feel as though there so many things wrong with that picture, I am not certain where to start. My only experience with allergies has been through a friend of mine

A person I know recently asked me to write down what I do in a day. I chuckled a little at the request. I figured that I wouldn't have the time to write down each and every thing I did, but I would put forth the best effort. I decided to skip any details like personal bathroom time, but I figured that I'd put everything else on there. I won't bore you with the details of my day today, but I am already at 93 items on the list (94, now that I am blogging). And this was a day that I didn't run, teach, volunteer, or do any cleaning (including vacuuming). When I look at the list, it really is ridiculous, but I am certain that most everyone's list would look that way. We all do a ton of things throughout the day, many of them, activities of which we aren't even aware. Try it sometime, to make a list, and you will surprise yourself with all the things of which you are capable. Looking at it just might tire you out, too!

Two things caused me to be speechless today, which is rare. Item #1: Tim brought home this article . It made my jaw drop. You don't have to agree with me, and since I am speechless, I'm not going to say anything else. Yet. Item #2: When we left our beloved home state in 2003, we had to leave one of our favorite restaurants. I am not going to divulge the name, but it was a Mexican restaurant, not a chain, that just served good food. To this day, I can't quite replicate the refried beans or enchilada sauce, and Tim misses the really hot salsa. I emailed the company a couple of days ago, just to see if they could let me in on a couple of the ingredients of their sauce. I knew that they wouldn't share the complete recipe, but I hoped for the name of even one spice that might make their enchilada sauce so mouthwatering good. Imagine my surprise when I received this email this evening (some items have been changed to protect the innocent): Thank you so much for your int

We've been buying a lot of English Muffins around here lately. We used to get them only when company came over, as a somewhat fancier alternative to cereal, oatmeal, or toast, but then found out that Melina and Zoe really like them. Zoe tends to be more particular in her liking of this bread; she prefers the original kind, although it doesn't matter which brand. Melina will eat any of them: original, multigrain, wheat, you name it. Melina is not picky when it comes to her love of bread. I finally got the idea to check my bread recipe book for a recipe to make English Muffins. And there it was! Now, I have had my bread machine for about 15 years, and I have had this particular recipe book for at least half that long. Furthermore, I actually do use my bread machine on a somewhat regular basis. But, I had never ventured into the world of homemade English muffins. After Tim picked up some malt vinegar that was called for in the recipe, I decided to give these little morsels

This past Sunday, thanks to my good friend, Kelsey, I attended a free seminar on writing for young adults. I love to write, as many of you know, and I have a book in the works. Okay, it is really just a story at this point, and I probably will never try to have the book published. But I thought my kids would enjoy reading something like a fictionalized account of events that happened prior to their birth. I hope to have the story done in a couple of years (!) because of the limited amount of spare time that I have. I know that most of you reading this can relate. Anyway, we went to this seminar, and the two writers there had plenty of good tips for writing. The more I thought about their tips, I realized that what they said applies to any genre of writing, whether you want to try your hand at horror, romance, realistic fiction, or fantasy. So, I am including the tips here. I am not recognizing the writers by name so that we can all keep some anonymity here. Plus, while I doubt

When we bought our house, we had only 2 children and 2 cats. We also didn't own much, so we had quite a bit of space. Too much in fact. One of Tim's friends from work used to call our house austere , which was his somewhat nice way of calling it empty. Two more kids and a dog later, and the house is full. Somewhat too full, if you ask me. So, Tim and I have been hauling things out of here: paper to be shredded, paper to be recycled, and anything that is useful that can be donated, all in an attempt to limit what we have. I certainly don't need all the books that we have, and I am certain that someone else can make good use of them. Same goes for Tim's trophies, apparently, and the oh-so-lovely ceramics that live in the basement, although I don't know from where they came. In all the hubbub of tossing items, I started to get itchy. And I don't mean from the dust in the boxes. I mean that I needed to make some other changes in the household, so that it m

If Melina could blog, this would describe her morning: 6:45 am. I woke up this morning with the sniffles. Mommy still came into my room full of smiles, so I guess the day might be all right. But I asked if I could have some chocolate, and she said no. No?!? Something about it being 7 o'clock in the morning. Well, I can't tell time, so what does it matter? 6:49 am. Mommy carried me downstairs so that we could finish up getting lunches ready for the kids. Today, it will be just the two of us. I already miss the girls and Aaron. I like having them home, and it is too bad that vacation is over. But you know what? I will ask for chocolate. That will make me feel better. Oh, I already did that. 7:15 am. I just had to go potty, and mommy's hands were freezing! Her fingertips on my body were like little icicles, and I didn't like it. Just like I don't like it when the dog's tail gets me, or when he slobbers on me. I don't like having a wet face. Unles

Is anyone else a little bothered by these new Facebook timelines? I haven't set one up. It all seems like a bit too information can be gleaned from them. I am sure it is just another way of looking at all of the information FB already has on you, but it just looks suspect to me. Am I wrong? One of you that have already established one -- would you like to fill me in on it? *** Inspired by Kelsey, we made peanut butter blossoms with sunflower butter instead of peanut butter. We did that last week. I finally told the kids today that I switched ingredients. They all agreed that they could taste something different (or so they say) but that they were still yummy. They are right! *** School starts back tomorrow for everyone except me! My plans for this quarter, as I take a hiatus from teaching, include more of the usual, plus some. Need a decoder for that? I thought so. I plan on doing the following: Volunteer at library and math time for the 4th graders, and math and science

I woke up this morning to a dusting of snow. Since Tim had the day off, I figured I'd still get my short Monday run accomplished. The snow didn't look like it would be too much of a bother. And luckily, it wasn't. I decided to go with a usual short route, since the snow was flying into my face and visibility wasn't the greatest. I couldn't even see the houses I was running by; it was that kind of snow. As I ran by some of the larger houses that come up quickly past the bridge, I noticed something looming on the side of the road. I don't run with contacts in, so at first it wasn't clear what was on the curb. But as I got closer, I knew what it was. It was a tree. A Christmas tree. A once-decorated, no-longer-needed, Christmas tree. A little farther up, there was another one, and as I kept going, I saw a few more. It made sense. In our area, the garbage collectors will come and get your tree, for free, provided you have put it to the curb. But

I am not one for New Year's Resolutions, but something has to change. Last night I once again skipped any New Year's festivities. Instead, I was snuggled up with Aaron and turned off the light at 9:07 pm. It could have been that I managed to get in my long run that morning (I always get pretty tired by the end of the day if that happens). It could have been that we babysat for some friends, so we had 3 extra kids (ages 3, 7, and 8) at our house from 1 until 8:30 pm. It could have been that a week with all the kids home had just tuckered me out. Whatever the case, I need to change it. The girls wanted to try to stay up until midnight this year, and I have no idea if Tim allowed them to do so. But part of the fun for the kids is knowing that your parents are allowing you to do something they don't normally allow you to do. And at this point, still, they enjoy spending time with us. How much longer is that going to last, I ask you? So, 365 days from now (it is a leap y