But instead, I think I'll post this:
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
The New House
I could post a picture of the gazillion boxes sitting unpacked in nearly every room. More optimistically, I could post a picture of the growing pile of empty boxes sitting on the front porch.
But instead, I think I'll post this:
But instead, I think I'll post this:
Thursday, January 22, 2015
On the Move
We are packing, packing, packing, painting, painting, painting and everyone keeps asking How's it all going? and I keep saying Great! until I remember that I offered John fifty cents if he would remind me of his piano lesson on Wednesday.When the seven-year-old is in charge of the family calendar, you're on thin ice, no two ways about it.
Lots of plates to keep spinning, and I think it is all just a touch easier now that the sun has started to shine once again. Two weeks of molton skies and drizzle didn't help anyone's mood. Vitamin D, we need you!
Anyway . . . pondering lots of things -- paint samples and room dimensions, the kids' academic progress or lack thereof, fitness or lack thereof, aging parents, the power of prayer, why my skin looks as bad as it does, how Lord Grantham has evolved (devolved?) into such an insufferable windbag, surprised that I'm beginning to love Baxter and even Mosely when he acts like a man and not a nine-year-old in the principal's office.
Head over to Rachel's for Downton conspiracy theories and lively discussion.
Back to packing, packing, packing, painting, painting, painting.
Friday, January 09, 2015
The Heat Never Bothered Me Anyway
1. We are up to our eyeballs in all things related to the move -- painting, packing, changing utilities, etcetera. Despite this, certain members of the family (read: the whole lot) continue to expect an uninterrupted flow of clean socks and rides to basketball games, laundered uniforms and balanced meals. Ainsley alone was the voice of reason the other day when she sweetly asked, "Is this going to be another snacky dinner?"
Yes, Sweetie. Snacky dinners are on the menu for the duration.
2. So Georgia is cold. As in windchill of 5 cold. We really don't do cold. The younger pair would wear shorts year round and never, never, never, ever, ever, ever don footwear in the house. Unless it's part of a costume. Think: plastic high heels. Truly, I get cold just looking at them. I don two pairs of socks under my slippers and crank my automatic mattress pad to ward off the chill.
We have a low intensity Thermostat War waging here. Oh, how I remember my dear Dad going nearly postal when he'd come home and find the heat set on 83. Sorry, Dad. I guess this would be a fine time to admit it was me. Well, Dave likes the house chilly and a certain unidentified adolescent boy whose name does not, for the record, appear on any utility invoice that passes through our hands, tends to crank it up. As he recently quipped: The heat never bothered me anyway.
3. Do you own an automatic mattress pad? Back in the day, these were called electric blankets. Now they go on under the sheets and are automatic (and I guess it's supposed to be a secret that they still plug into an electrical socket). Anyway . . . Automatic mattress pad = best purchase ever. Mainly this is because we sprung for the queen-sized, dual control number. Yes, dual control. Dave can set his side on a nippy number 1 while I am toasty on six or seven. Truly a thing of beauty. And also one of the best gifts I've ever bought the unidentified adolescent. Teenagers, they like their comfort.
4. Sometimes I get major props from the kids, especially the younger boys, when they dwell on the fact that their mother once wore Army boots. I am seriously cool because I fired a Howitzer (once), because I threw a live hand grenade (once).
These bright moments aside, the kids have discovered that I never saw combat, that I never once put my hands on C-4 (plastic explosives for civilians), that I never was embroiled in a hostage crisis of any sort. I think they sometimes confuse the U.S. Army with a Swat Team.
I was deployed during wartime, but, sadly for them, I spent my five and a half months of active duty briefing pregnant soldiers on their maternity benefits and trying to convince very young enlisted folks to take advantage of the GI Bill. Oh, and I watched a lot of CNN. I think I remember ordering new reflective vests for my unit's physical fitness program.
"I was a personnel officer," I told Kolbe today. "I filled out a lot of forms."
"Really, Mom," he says, shaking his head sadly and shooting me a look that spoke of keen disappointment. "Really?"
5. So I was cleaning up our camera, trying to cobble together the few photos I shot of Christmas 2014, and I found this:
Let me zoom in:
I hope this wasn't on display when we were showing the house. Please say it wasn't. And when the appraiser pops in next week, remind me to check all wall surfaces for stray underwear.
6. I also found this:
A terrible shot of a really neat evening we hope becomes a family tradition. Saint Lucia's Day. This is, I believe, a Swedish tradition. The oldest daughter greets the family with candles on her head and a tray of sweet rolls and hot chocolate in her hands.
So fun.
I have to project all my girly-girl expectations onto just one child, but, thankfully, Ainsley is only too happy to comply with my wishes.
7. So a new season of Downton is upon us. I don't think I'll be writing much about it because, hello!, moving! But also because I tend to just nitpick and besides that my friend Rachel will provide incise weekly commentary and discussion over at her corner of the Internet.
Here's my contribution to her deconstruction of Episode 1:
Yes, Sweetie. Snacky dinners are on the menu for the duration.
2. So Georgia is cold. As in windchill of 5 cold. We really don't do cold. The younger pair would wear shorts year round and never, never, never, ever, ever, ever don footwear in the house. Unless it's part of a costume. Think: plastic high heels. Truly, I get cold just looking at them. I don two pairs of socks under my slippers and crank my automatic mattress pad to ward off the chill.
We have a low intensity Thermostat War waging here. Oh, how I remember my dear Dad going nearly postal when he'd come home and find the heat set on 83. Sorry, Dad. I guess this would be a fine time to admit it was me. Well, Dave likes the house chilly and a certain unidentified adolescent boy whose name does not, for the record, appear on any utility invoice that passes through our hands, tends to crank it up. As he recently quipped: The heat never bothered me anyway.
3. Do you own an automatic mattress pad? Back in the day, these were called electric blankets. Now they go on under the sheets and are automatic (and I guess it's supposed to be a secret that they still plug into an electrical socket). Anyway . . . Automatic mattress pad = best purchase ever. Mainly this is because we sprung for the queen-sized, dual control number. Yes, dual control. Dave can set his side on a nippy number 1 while I am toasty on six or seven. Truly a thing of beauty. And also one of the best gifts I've ever bought the unidentified adolescent. Teenagers, they like their comfort.
4. Sometimes I get major props from the kids, especially the younger boys, when they dwell on the fact that their mother once wore Army boots. I am seriously cool because I fired a Howitzer (once), because I threw a live hand grenade (once).
These bright moments aside, the kids have discovered that I never saw combat, that I never once put my hands on C-4 (plastic explosives for civilians), that I never was embroiled in a hostage crisis of any sort. I think they sometimes confuse the U.S. Army with a Swat Team.
I was deployed during wartime, but, sadly for them, I spent my five and a half months of active duty briefing pregnant soldiers on their maternity benefits and trying to convince very young enlisted folks to take advantage of the GI Bill. Oh, and I watched a lot of CNN. I think I remember ordering new reflective vests for my unit's physical fitness program.
"I was a personnel officer," I told Kolbe today. "I filled out a lot of forms."
"Really, Mom," he says, shaking his head sadly and shooting me a look that spoke of keen disappointment. "Really?"
5. So I was cleaning up our camera, trying to cobble together the few photos I shot of Christmas 2014, and I found this:
Let me zoom in:
I hope this wasn't on display when we were showing the house. Please say it wasn't. And when the appraiser pops in next week, remind me to check all wall surfaces for stray underwear.
6. I also found this:
A terrible shot of a really neat evening we hope becomes a family tradition. Saint Lucia's Day. This is, I believe, a Swedish tradition. The oldest daughter greets the family with candles on her head and a tray of sweet rolls and hot chocolate in her hands.
So fun.
I have to project all my girly-girl expectations onto just one child, but, thankfully, Ainsley is only too happy to comply with my wishes.
7. So a new season of Downton is upon us. I don't think I'll be writing much about it because, hello!, moving! But also because I tend to just nitpick and besides that my friend Rachel will provide incise weekly commentary and discussion over at her corner of the Internet.
Here's my contribution to her deconstruction of Episode 1:
My theories:
What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from anyone but Christine who's seen it all over in Scotland.
Saturday, January 03, 2015
My Favorite Post of 2014
I started to draft a year in review, but made it only through February because, hello!, we're moving. But this one made me cry . . .
A Perfect Fit
"I'm a perfect fit," Ainsley tells me as I carry her through the backyard.
And she is.
I can still carry her. Not too far. But I can carry her. She fits in my lap at church. She snuggles up to me on the couch. She moves with great stealth and slides in between Dave and me every. single. night. I had to laugh when Dave put her to bed the other night. No pretense of Ainsley crashing in her own room, no, no, into our bed she went right from the get go. Ainsley proved handy during our recent power outage. Having a three foot long hot water bottle is helpful when the indoor temperature is hovering around 50.
She is a perfect fit.
Seventeen years ago, my friend Laurie was pregnant with her youngest when I was pregnant with my oldest. Tim and Caleb are six weeks apart. Laurie was teaching school when the boys started pre-school together. Once or twice a week, Laurie would drop off Caleb for a few minutes before I drove them to school.
Except that she didn't drop him off.
She usually carried him into the house. And did that ever seem strange to me!. Tim was my oldest. Five! Kolbe was a newborn, and by comparison Tim was practically an adolescent!
But now I look at Ainsley -- my baby -- and I see how very small she is (how very small he was). She's a perfect fit, don't you know, and there's nothing odd about carrying the baby around.
I popped over to Clover Lane the other day and was truly touched by Sarah's words:
Sarah had cruised the Internet and found plenty of copy lamenting what a drag parenting can be. I, too, have stumbled on a few blogs that make motherhood look like one monotonous trip to the dentist's office sans Novocaine. I'm not talking about the cathartic blog post full of poop, a cyber-rant following an ice storm coupled with a stomach blog served with a generous side of Science Fair. I write those. I read those. I laugh at those. But blogs that leave you wondering if these mothers like their children at all, ever? Those are sad.
One long night I was up late rocking a sick baby (croup? ear infection?), doing one of the hard things that, as Sarah points out, parents simply do. I flipped through the channels until I stumbled upon The Octomom talking to Suze Orman.
Quite a combo.
Suze was offering her financial wizardry to The Octomom who was facing bankruptcy and foreclosure. Not content to stick to money matters, Suze felt a pressing need to lead The Octomom to confess her sins on national television, to repent before Dr. Phil and all of America, not for gross mis-management of her finances, but for bringing all those kids into the world. And Suze's nothing if not persuasive. She got The Octomom to utter the words I'm sure many wanted to hear: If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have had them.
Believe me, I am not here to cheer the decisions this obviously troubled woman has made, but coaxing someone to say aloud I wish you'd never been born is simply hateful.
I wish you weren't.
Ugh.
But on to lighter topics . . . Do you get sucked into those Facebook quizzes? Oh, how I used to mock them! Which one of the Seven Dwarfs are you? Really, I have a life to live and laundry to do. Which character from Gone with the Wind are you? Um, no.
But then I spotted Which city should you live in? and I bit. I was hoping for London but settled for Paris.Which character from Downton Abbey are you? I wanted Lady Cora but settled for Anna. And then there was this one: How many kids should you have?
Now maybe the testers read too much into my reservations about dealing with pet waste. Yes, I admitted I would hold a vomiting child while simultaneously attending to the mess, but that's just common sense in my book. Well, they must have picked up on some latent, long buried OCD tendencies because the brains behind this test concluded I should have two children.
So which two wouldn't be?
When we sit down to dinner, more often than not, I'm harried. It's on the table. I've herded the troops, corralled the forgotten condiments, checked the burners, given the little people the pep talk about sitting up straight, no arguing, yadda, yadda, yadda. Harried, just harried.
And we start to pray.
Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts . . .
And invariably I think not of the food in front of us, but of the child sitting closest to me, the little blonde pixie on my left, the one who came so unexpectedly when I was 45, the one who defied fertility statistics and the Facebook quiz and added sparkle and pink tulle and blue eyes to the mix and left us forever changed.
And I lean over nearly every night at that exact moment and kiss her downy blonde hair.
Because she is a gift.
They all are.
And four children?
A perfect fit.
And she is.
I can still carry her. Not too far. But I can carry her. She fits in my lap at church. She snuggles up to me on the couch. She moves with great stealth and slides in between Dave and me every. single. night. I had to laugh when Dave put her to bed the other night. No pretense of Ainsley crashing in her own room, no, no, into our bed she went right from the get go. Ainsley proved handy during our recent power outage. Having a three foot long hot water bottle is helpful when the indoor temperature is hovering around 50.
She is a perfect fit.
Seventeen years ago, my friend Laurie was pregnant with her youngest when I was pregnant with my oldest. Tim and Caleb are six weeks apart. Laurie was teaching school when the boys started pre-school together. Once or twice a week, Laurie would drop off Caleb for a few minutes before I drove them to school.
Except that she didn't drop him off.
She usually carried him into the house. And did that ever seem strange to me!. Tim was my oldest. Five! Kolbe was a newborn, and by comparison Tim was practically an adolescent!
But now I look at Ainsley -- my baby -- and I see how very small she is (how very small he was). She's a perfect fit, don't you know, and there's nothing odd about carrying the baby around.
I popped over to Clover Lane the other day and was truly touched by Sarah's words:
I've also learned over the last two decades that when I find the joy in mothering, yes, even when it requires every ounce of me, when I look through the world from the eyes of those who call me mommy, when I stop thinking "oh, this is hard" and started thinking "oh, i'm so lucky", I've fully enjoyed all the aspects of parenting. I think I owe love and devotion to my children - I think all parents do.
I like to visualize each of my precious babies as little gifts I was chosen by the grace of God to receive - spiritual perfection enclosed in a tiny bundle of cute human-ness - I have such an obligation (sometimes overwhelming for sure!) to care and nurture these gifts - their little lives depend on us really, to survive and thrive for the rest of their lives.
Sarah had cruised the Internet and found plenty of copy lamenting what a drag parenting can be. I, too, have stumbled on a few blogs that make motherhood look like one monotonous trip to the dentist's office sans Novocaine. I'm not talking about the cathartic blog post full of poop, a cyber-rant following an ice storm coupled with a stomach blog served with a generous side of Science Fair. I write those. I read those. I laugh at those. But blogs that leave you wondering if these mothers like their children at all, ever? Those are sad.
One long night I was up late rocking a sick baby (croup? ear infection?), doing one of the hard things that, as Sarah points out, parents simply do. I flipped through the channels until I stumbled upon The Octomom talking to Suze Orman.
Quite a combo.
Suze was offering her financial wizardry to The Octomom who was facing bankruptcy and foreclosure. Not content to stick to money matters, Suze felt a pressing need to lead The Octomom to confess her sins on national television, to repent before Dr. Phil and all of America, not for gross mis-management of her finances, but for bringing all those kids into the world. And Suze's nothing if not persuasive. She got The Octomom to utter the words I'm sure many wanted to hear: If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have had them.
Believe me, I am not here to cheer the decisions this obviously troubled woman has made, but coaxing someone to say aloud I wish you'd never been born is simply hateful.
I wish you weren't.
Ugh.
But on to lighter topics . . . Do you get sucked into those Facebook quizzes? Oh, how I used to mock them! Which one of the Seven Dwarfs are you? Really, I have a life to live and laundry to do. Which character from Gone with the Wind are you? Um, no.
But then I spotted Which city should you live in? and I bit. I was hoping for London but settled for Paris.Which character from Downton Abbey are you? I wanted Lady Cora but settled for Anna. And then there was this one: How many kids should you have?
Now maybe the testers read too much into my reservations about dealing with pet waste. Yes, I admitted I would hold a vomiting child while simultaneously attending to the mess, but that's just common sense in my book. Well, they must have picked up on some latent, long buried OCD tendencies because the brains behind this test concluded I should have two children.
So which two wouldn't be?
When we sit down to dinner, more often than not, I'm harried. It's on the table. I've herded the troops, corralled the forgotten condiments, checked the burners, given the little people the pep talk about sitting up straight, no arguing, yadda, yadda, yadda. Harried, just harried.
And we start to pray.
Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts . . .
And invariably I think not of the food in front of us, but of the child sitting closest to me, the little blonde pixie on my left, the one who came so unexpectedly when I was 45, the one who defied fertility statistics and the Facebook quiz and added sparkle and pink tulle and blue eyes to the mix and left us forever changed.
And I lean over nearly every night at that exact moment and kiss her downy blonde hair.
Because she is a gift.
They all are.
And four children?
A perfect fit.
Friday, January 02, 2015
On the Road Again
Since I've last written, the family Dolin has once again survived the trek to Michigan and back. Sixteen hundred miles, approximately 31 hours on the road, gallons of coffee, a little snow, too much fast food.
Since you haven't had the firsthand pleasure of sharing a three by seven space with six Dolins and their thirty-seven favorite bags, I thought I'd give you a taste of the experience. Let me begin by introducing The Cast of Characters who routinely show up for these jaunts.
1. Commando Man
Commando Man has not voluntarily donned an undergarment since mastering potty training around age three. No matter the length of trip, no matter the climate we expect, commando man will pack no undies. His dedicated mother will dutifully slip a few pairs into the suitcase. There they will remain until they are unpacked upon arrival home.
Call me a sexist, but there is no Commando Girl. No, if Ainsley leaves town for three days, she is sure to tuck away about seven flowered panties. No plain panties. They remain in the drawer, thank you very much.
2. My Little Surfer Girl
Ainsley is, however, very much like her brothers in one respect: No matter the season or destination, she will pack shorts. Detroit in December? Shorts. Toss in a few summer dresses and summer jammies, and she's good.
3. Oscar Madison
This person will remain unidentified outside of the pseudonym. That Oscar, he's a faithful soul who dutifully packs every last item on his list and nearly every article of clothing is positively filthy. This frustrates Oscar's mother to no end as she discovers the grisly evidence long after she has patted herself on the back for finishing the last load of laundry. Time and experience have taught her there is no last load. There is no last load. There's always one more nasty sock, one more sweaty t-shirt.
4. Marian the Librarian
We have several of these and, in the interest of full disclosure, I should name myself among them. With a fifteen hour drive looming ahead, Marian begins dreaming of all the reading she hasn't been able to accomplish in the hurly burly leading up to the trip. Always the dreamer and something of an optimist, Marian will pack a veritable library of which she will actually read approximately seven pages of a single volume.
Oh well. Marian is better than her ignoramus alter-ego who, upon being instructor by his mother to pack three books, does indeed pack three books. Upon being instructed to find one of the books and stop complaining about being bored and actually read one of the darn things, Ignoramus will readily confess that he grabbed three random books he had absolutely no interest in reading.
Ignoramus' mother will scratch her head unsure of whether she should praise Ignoramus for at least being obedient (a trait usually in short supply as the family is packing up) or soundly deride him for missing the whole point of the book packing thing, namely, to have something to alleviate the boredom.
5. Techno Man
Techno Man may lack both books and underwear, but he will have a laptop, a charger, earplugs, various and sundry games and movies. He can be counted on to find the GPS, locate phone chargers, in short, to handle all jobs related to keeping the family wired. Techno Man knows full well that we don't want to waste a single minute of that fifteen hour drive just thinking or talking or praying. Oh, no, no, no. This guy's motto is Be Prepared. When the going gets rough (and the going always gets rough at some point), everyone's glad to have Techno around.
6. The Galloping Gourmet
Galloping, too, lacks both books and undies, but he is sure to lay in a healthy store of provisions. And by healthy I mean generous not, well, healthy. Food is to Galloping what gadgets are to Techno Man. Cheez-its are his love language and, again, when the going gets rough, everyone's happy someone remembered chocolate milk and sunflower seeds.
7. Johnny Carson
Several family members vie for this coveted title that captures the person who keeps Mom laughing, a critical job indeed. Tim probably clinched this on our most recent trip went he climbed into the van -- still parked in our driveway -- and quipped, "This would be a great time to go into a short coma."
Indeed it would.
8. The Holy Spirit
I swear we couldn't do this without the grace of God. Or we'd do it and leave someone at a rest stop. Intentionally. Or we'd do it and require marriage counselling. God is good, all the time. Even when I-40 narrows to a single lane and there's sleet on the horizon and a pre-schooler moaning,"I need to go potty."
And it's so very, very good to be home again, home again.
Very good.
Since you haven't had the firsthand pleasure of sharing a three by seven space with six Dolins and their thirty-seven favorite bags, I thought I'd give you a taste of the experience. Let me begin by introducing The Cast of Characters who routinely show up for these jaunts.
1. Commando Man
Commando Man has not voluntarily donned an undergarment since mastering potty training around age three. No matter the length of trip, no matter the climate we expect, commando man will pack no undies. His dedicated mother will dutifully slip a few pairs into the suitcase. There they will remain until they are unpacked upon arrival home.
Call me a sexist, but there is no Commando Girl. No, if Ainsley leaves town for three days, she is sure to tuck away about seven flowered panties. No plain panties. They remain in the drawer, thank you very much.
 |
| Winter Coat |
Ainsley is, however, very much like her brothers in one respect: No matter the season or destination, she will pack shorts. Detroit in December? Shorts. Toss in a few summer dresses and summer jammies, and she's good.
3. Oscar Madison
This person will remain unidentified outside of the pseudonym. That Oscar, he's a faithful soul who dutifully packs every last item on his list and nearly every article of clothing is positively filthy. This frustrates Oscar's mother to no end as she discovers the grisly evidence long after she has patted herself on the back for finishing the last load of laundry. Time and experience have taught her there is no last load. There is no last load. There's always one more nasty sock, one more sweaty t-shirt.
4. Marian the Librarian
We have several of these and, in the interest of full disclosure, I should name myself among them. With a fifteen hour drive looming ahead, Marian begins dreaming of all the reading she hasn't been able to accomplish in the hurly burly leading up to the trip. Always the dreamer and something of an optimist, Marian will pack a veritable library of which she will actually read approximately seven pages of a single volume.
 |
| Dress Clothes |
Ignoramus' mother will scratch her head unsure of whether she should praise Ignoramus for at least being obedient (a trait usually in short supply as the family is packing up) or soundly deride him for missing the whole point of the book packing thing, namely, to have something to alleviate the boredom.
5. Techno Man
Techno Man may lack both books and underwear, but he will have a laptop, a charger, earplugs, various and sundry games and movies. He can be counted on to find the GPS, locate phone chargers, in short, to handle all jobs related to keeping the family wired. Techno Man knows full well that we don't want to waste a single minute of that fifteen hour drive just thinking or talking or praying. Oh, no, no, no. This guy's motto is Be Prepared. When the going gets rough (and the going always gets rough at some point), everyone's glad to have Techno around.
6. The Galloping Gourmet
Galloping, too, lacks both books and undies, but he is sure to lay in a healthy store of provisions. And by healthy I mean generous not, well, healthy. Food is to Galloping what gadgets are to Techno Man. Cheez-its are his love language and, again, when the going gets rough, everyone's happy someone remembered chocolate milk and sunflower seeds.
7. Johnny Carson
Several family members vie for this coveted title that captures the person who keeps Mom laughing, a critical job indeed. Tim probably clinched this on our most recent trip went he climbed into the van -- still parked in our driveway -- and quipped, "This would be a great time to go into a short coma."
Indeed it would.
8. The Holy Spirit
I swear we couldn't do this without the grace of God. Or we'd do it and leave someone at a rest stop. Intentionally. Or we'd do it and require marriage counselling. God is good, all the time. Even when I-40 narrows to a single lane and there's sleet on the horizon and a pre-schooler moaning,"I need to go potty."
And it's so very, very good to be home again, home again.
Very good.
Thursday, January 01, 2015
Yo Grandma's So Old
Each summer my kids return from summer camp with two things: the mother lode of indescribable socks and a fresh supply of Yo Mama jokes. My favorite? Yo mama is so old she sat behind Moses in the third grade.John recently skipped a generation and gave us a laugh with an inadvertent Yo Grandma joke. Seems he and Grandma were watching the trailer for Night at the Museum III and a brief exchange followed.
Grandma: You know I've been to the Museum of Natural History.
John: Did you see the dinosaur bones or the actual dinosaurs?
With all that's been going down of late, I'm guessing Grandma feels about 65 million years old, but we're fairly certain she isn't really 65 million years old.
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