Sleep Long and Prosper
By · CommentsHmmm…what have I learned today? I have learned that getting a good amount of sleep makes an immense difference in the quality of my day, despite the actions of those around me.
Sarah woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, constantly crying and whining over every little thing that didn’t go the way she wanted it to. Actually, I think she just cried about every thing that happened, good or bad. She was a wreck. Since I went to bed early last night, around 10 o’clock, I didn’t lose my temper with her, or lash out at Christopher and Pucci because I was frustrated with Sarah. In fact, not only did I keep my cool with Sarah, I actually started to feel concerned for her and thought that she might be sick. I asked her, “Sarah, are you okay? Are you feeling a little bit sick? Are you still tired? Do you need to go lay down a little bit longer?” She said no to all of these inquiries, so when I again asked, “What’s wrong, Sweetie? Why are you crying so much this morning?” she replied, with her little quivering voice, “I have some issues.” She then proceeded to bawl some more. I suggested that perhaps she needed to go talk to Daddy and snuggle with him a little more, since she only snuggled with him a little bit this morning.
After her breakfast sunk in, her mood improved quite a bit, but she started to get really tired around noon. Now, Sarah is not a napper–she pretty much gave up on sleeping during the day after her first month in our world. On really active days, she might peter out around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, but that’s still very rare. So, when Sarah started falling asleep in the car at 12:15, I got a little worried about what the rest of our day might look like. More importantly, I worried that I might miss out on any adult time in the evening! She almost drifted off on the way to her friend Ava’s house for lunch, but she didn’t quite fall asleep. When we walked in, however, she proclaimed that she didn’t want to eat, and when I asked her to at least sit at the table and keep Ava company, a tantrum ensued. So, I had to carry her back to the car crying, but again, I was okay–calm, cool, and collected. I didn’t really want to leave, but I was alright. Thank goodness for a good night’s sleep.
These types of interactions continued throughout the day, especially after she awoke from what turned out to be a very brief nap, but I was still in a good mood as I washed the dishes after dinner. I don’t think I can really determine if I accomplished more or less today than I usually do, but I definitely feel better about my day overall. Even if I wasn’t more productive, I didn’t feel the stress or sense of urgency that I usually feel from the moment I begrudgingly get out of bed to tend to everyone else’s needs. After an adequate amount of sleep, rising in the morning isn’t completely unpleasant. In fact, it wasn’t bad at all–it felt kind of good.
So, I have a new goal of going to bed around 10 o’clock every night. Now, I’ve had this goal plenty of times before, but it always came with the flip side of trying to wake up early, like at 5:30 or 6 am. That’s really the part of the goal that I always dreaded. So, I’m not including that part this time. Heck, I’m always getting up around that time to feed Pucci the Pig anyway, so I don’t see why I have to stay up! So, I’m just aiming to go to bed early, get enough sleep, and wake up when it’s time to wake up to take care of my family. I’ll keep you posted on how that works out. Let me know if you have any tips for me to stick with it!
Snake Talk
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I have to say that I am very pleased with the library system here in Irving. I often tell Christopher, “I think the public library is one of the best uses of our tax dollars.” That may not be the case everywhere, but our library system is pretty awesome, and it definitely saves us a lot of money on books, CDs, DVDs, and entertainment.
Now that school is out, our libraries have even more events to take advantage of, and we started taking advantage of them today with our trip to “Snake Talk” at the Southwest Branch. I saw this on the schedule when I picked it up last week, but I didn’t think much of it since my son is only 9 months old, and I didn’t really think Sarah would be interested.
But then, as we were leaving for church yesterday morning, I thought I saw a worm wriggling about in our garage. I called Sarah’s attention to it before I realized it was actually a small snake. At that point, I asked Christopher to come take care of it because, let’s face it, that’s a man’s job if he’s there to do it. Thankfully, he was here – I know I could have done it, but it would not have been pleasant, and just thinking about it now sends shivers up and down my spine. Anyway, as Christopher took the snake out to the yard, he showed it to Sarah and asked if she wanted to touch it. She seemed a little nervous at first, but then she told us that it was “Charlotte.” Since watching Charlotte’s Web, repeatedly, she has taken to giving this name to any creature that could be harmful, but which she determines to be nice. Until yesterday, I thought this label could only be applied to bugs of all sorts, but apparently, it works for snakes, too. After Sarah deemed this snake to be a Charlotte, she was happy to touch it and got excited.
On the way to church, I remembered the Snake Talk scheduled at the library and decided to see what Sarah thought about it, and she was into it. I thought her interest might fade, but when I asked her about it this morning, she was still interested, though much less excited. Then, Pucci took a late nap and I let Sarah watch The Aristocats, even though I knew it wouldn’t be over before the Snake Talk, which began at 2:30. Pucci finally woke up at 1:45, so I told Sarah that she could either finish the movie now, or take a break to go see the snakes. I was pretty surprised when she jumped up to grab a friend and leave the movie behind.
When we got to the library, the floor of the small meeting room was already overcrowded, but everyone continued scooting in to make room for more. John Hunter, the snake man, brought about a dozen snakes with him. Of course, he started by showing us the smaller snakes, and telling us about what they eat and how their jaws work. As the talk went on, the snakes got bigger until he finally brought out a large boa constrictor and Burmese python. With every snake Mr. Hunter unveiled, Sarah exclaimed, “Look–real snakes!” At the end, he brought around Banana, his yellow Burmese python, for everyone to touch. Sarah was so excited, and before she got close enough to actually touch it, she ran back to me to tell me that it was sticking its tongue out. After she touched it the first time, she was hooked. She kept coming back to sit down with me, and then saying, “I want to touch it again.” All in all, I think she got up five times to pet the snake. It was adorable. And amazing. I mean, this 2 1/2 year old girl will lovingly pet a python five times, but she won’t even take one bite of a piece of lettuce at dinner. I don’t get it, but I’m proud of her. Maybe we’ll actually try out the reptile house next time we go to the zoo.
Genius!
By · CommentsI would have to say that “Genius!” is one of the most used phrases in our house. Now, there might be some debate as to whether or not you could consider it a phrase since it’s only one word (I had an internal debate over it before writing it), but I conclude that due to the message it conveys, it is in fact a phrase. Also, I went ahead and referred to the “experts” at Wikipedia, and “a simple phrase consists of only one word.”
Usually, when I hear other people use the word “genius,” it is with a negative connotation, such as, “Hey, genius, the sign says ‘push’.” Thankfully, in this household, it is almost always used positively to exclaim admiration for an idea we marvel at. Most of these ideas probably do not come from Mensa members. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of them come from Average Joes and Janes who either a) have a good deal of common sense, b) have a lot of knowledge and experience in a certain, specialized area, or c) are too lazy to go about doing things the conventional way and sometimes get lucky. I’m not sure what that says about us — I suppose we must be very lacking in both common sense and specialized knowledge. Oh well–we have a great deal of fun recognizing good ideas, and I thought you might enjoy some of them as well.
I’m going to start with an idea that I had a few weeks ago. I was cleaning the garage (this has become my activity of choice when Pucci falls asleep in the car and I’m afraid of waking him up by moving him inside) and decided to change out the cardboard that catches the oil that leaks from our car. While the cardboard was very helpful, there were still some oil spots on the concrete, and I was in some strange mood to get rid of them instead of just overlooking them as I usually do. Rather than looking online or calling my dad to find out how to treat them, I decided to just look around the garage and see if I had anything that might work. My real intent here was to put in some “effort”, but then just deal with it as usual when it didn’t work. Well, I found some oven cleaner, which we always have plenty of since I only clean the oven when it’s time to move, and decided that if it works on oven grease it might work on car grease. So, I sprayed some on, rubbed it around with an old sponge, and then rinsed it off with the garden hose — and it worked! I got a “Genius!” from Christopher, and my mom gave me a “Smart Squirrel,” which is her applause phrase of choice. Of course, my impromptu attempt still backfired a little bit: the foundation here is all whacked out, so when I hosed off the oven cleaner and oil, most of the water ran under the workbench shelves on the side of the garage instead of going out onto the driveway and into the street. 
Personally, I use “Genius!” quite often in the kitchen. I recently bought some oven bags that were on clearance at Target. I didn’t know there was anything special about them, besides their reduced price, until I actually used one to bake a chicken. Now, my idea to use them to bake a chicken sprang from a “duuuhhhhhh” moment: I had just used a crockpot liner and thought, “I wish they had something like this for baking a chicken so I wouldn’t have to clean out pan…duuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh–an oven bag.” Of course, I didn’t get a “smart squirrel” from my mom on that one either. She said, “Just use foil.” Anyway, back to the geniusness of these oven bags. They have 2 excellent features: they are top loading and have a peel-away sticky seal. So, you can just set the bag in the pan, open up the top, and set the chicken or turkey right in there instead of trying to wiggle it in sideways! Genius! Then, instead of looking for the little twisty to seal it off on the end, you just peel off the white sticker and fold the flap over to seal the bag! Genius!
Okay, so I never expected this entry to be so long. I guess I must be enjoying writing more, and I’m definitely getting more relaxed with a lack of real structure. So, this might have to turn into a series because I do have much more to share on the topic. Of course, if I get a lot of negative feedback, I will keep the rest to myself and try to come up with something more interesting to write about. Please share some ideas that you’d label as “Genius!” with me by commenting below. I’m sure I could use them.
Writing as a Habit
By · CommentsAlthough I haven’t posted anything on this site since last week, I have been writing daily. Several of my friends recommended that I simply work on the habit of writing for the sake of writing to help me get over my stumbling block. My friend Adam, a fellow Econ major from back in the day, suggested this site 750words.com to help me get more comfortable with writing. I suppose you could say it’s sort of like an online journal, but it’s private, so there’s no pressure to write anything worthwhile, and you get points, so it’s a bit like a game. It’s based on an activity to help artist’s clear their minds before they start their day: to write 3 pages first thing in the morning, a sort of brain dump. I’m really enjoying using it, and it’s so nice to write what no one else is going to see, so there is absolutely no pressure. In fact, I’ve even signed up for the June Challenge to write 750 words everyday for the month. So, if I miss even one day, I’ll end up on the Wall of Shame. On the other hand, if I’m successful in this endeavor, my name will go on the Wall of Amazingness. I’m telling you, this is my kind of cheesy, slightly competitive, site. As Angela says, “Oh, how Julia loves her gold stars.”
I think it’s working. I’ve been kind of excited about getting up and writing. On Friday, I wasn’t able to write 750 words before midnight, and I was pretty upset about it. I had started trying to write around 4:30 in the afternoon, but I was babysitting a neighbor, and dealing with my own children, and there just seemed to be one interruption after another. I think that over the span of 7 1/2 hours, I only wrote about 580 words. It definitely helps when I get up and write first thing in the morning. It’s becoming kind of therapeutic, as well.
My Purpose in Life
By · CommentsI hope my title didn’t fool you–I have no idea what my purpose in life is. I have, however, been wondering about it lately. This is an unusual topic for me to ponder. I’ve always liked to plan things out and know where I’m going, but I generally work on a short-term, day-to-day kind of basis. Christopher is the one who likes to plan the long-term future and think about maximizing his potential. Actually, I think I don’t like to think too far into the future because I hate it when plans change, or simply don’t get realized. So, for me, thinking about my “purpose” in life puts a lot of pressure on me. What if I get it wrong? Or what if I get it right, but don’t live it out? That’s some heavy stuff.
Well, as I said before, I don’t know my purpose, but I think it might have to do with writing. Or, maybe writing will help in the fulfillment of my purpose. People are always telling me about what a good writer I am — either that my writing is entertaining, or that I do a very good job of writing about complicated topics in a way that makes them easy to understand. Unfortunately, I’m under the impression that I HATE writing. I suppose it’s because I’ve never really written just for fun. When I think about writing, I think about having an assignment to finish by a certain date, and writing in a style that will earn a good grade from whichever teacher I’m writing for. Even now, when I’ve been out of school for 7 years (wow!), the thought of writing essays makes me cringe. Every time I’ve considered going to grad school for Economics, I’ve always stopped at, “I don’t want to write essays ever again.” And every time I talk to my friends who are in grad school, and they’re working on papers, I call them suckers and thank the Lord that I’m not in their shoes.
Perhaps writing in my blog more regularly, just for the heck of it, will help me get over my supposed distaste for writing. Now, I realize that I always seem to write about my goal of blogging more often, and then I don’t post anything for months. I have hope that this time will be different. I also have hope that you will help me, and by help, I mean nag. If you notice that I’ve gone more than a week without posting, I want you to pester me about it. Remind me that blogging is not essay writing. It doesn’t have to be a “final draft”, and it doesn’t have to have a specific structure, and it doesn’t have to be planned and researched ahead of time. I suppose blogging could include all of those steps, but it doesn’t have to. Which is why it should be fun, right?
Shocking Discovery by 2-year-old
By · CommentsSo, Sarah has always been very opinionated, especially since she learned how to express her opinions verbally. She has been anti-butter and anti-cheese since she could say, “No.” If you make her a pancake, she almost immediately says, “No butter,” and when you offer her a bite of your quesadilla, she responds, “I don’t like cheese.” These expressions are always accompanied by a furrowing of the brow and crinkled lips to completely convey her disgust at the idea of consuming such filth.
Well, tonight, we were eating one of Sarah’s all-time favorite foods: noodles. In fact, they were the best variety for her: “twirly-whirlies,” which basically means long noodles that can be twirled around the fork. Of course, since she’s 2 1/2, she is physically incapable of making her own twirly-whirlies, so this favorite dish of hers is now a least favorite of Mommy’s. (I actually try to eat long noodles when she’s asleep or out with Daddy so I can actually enjoy eating a bowl full instead of having to pause between bites to make sure she’s getting her fill of twirly-whirlies.) Anyway, she had some plain noodles in her bowl, and I had some with butter and garlic seasoning in mine. This was actually pretty unusual because I almost always use olive oil, but tonight, I guess I was feeling a little bit dangerous 
Of course, as we were eating, Sarah requested to have some of mine. She and her father both deeply believe that everything tastes better when it comes from my plate. So, I twirled some around my fork and stuck it in her gaping mouth. She chewed and enjoyed for awhile, some of the noodles still hanging out of her mouth, her little hands holding them up to make sure they wouldn’t fall and to assist their journey through the lips. Suddenly, I decided to announce, “My noodles have butter on them.” The look on her face was priceless as her hands quickly removed the remaining pasta from her mouth and dumped it in my bowl, while she simultaneously recited her token, “I don’t like butter.” Then, after she sat there and thought about it for a few seconds, she admitted, “I like your noodles. They have butter on them? I like butter now.” It took awhile for all of these statements to escape, but after they did, she asked for more of my noodles and asked me to get the butter on the rest of the noodles in her bowl, too!!
I was so excited, I decided to push the envelope and asked,” What about cheese? Do you like cheese now, too?” She held up her hand, squeezed her thumb and pointer together, and said, “A little bit,” as she shrugged her shoulders. My visions of eating mac ‘n cheese with my daughter quickly vanished, however, when I asked her if she would take a bite of a quesadilla if I made one. She immediately said, “I don’t like cheese.”
All He Wanted For Christmas . . .
By · CommentsIt’s been a challenging year for us financially, so although we had a feeling this would be the Best Christmas Ever (b/c I still believe that every Christmas is the best Christmas ever), we knew there’d be slim pickings under the tree. I wasn’t sure how much money I’d be able to spend, but I still wanted to make this a special Christmas for my husband. Thankfully, since before Thanksgiving, he had been telling me how much he hoped Sarah could learn the “Hippopotamus song” for Christmas. I had no clue what he was talking about, but I tried my darndest to make it happen.
First, I searched the libraries and a few stores for CDs that had the “Hippopotamus song” on them–I didn’t have an actual title, so this is what I had to go on. Then, my good friend Melissa, informed me that she had a CD of the song (which she herself finds annoying) and told me the very simple title, “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas.” And, then, of course, came my Google search which led to the other favorite megasite–YOUTUBE! Thank you to everyone else out there who made animated shorts and filmed their own daughters singing this sometimes annoying but also adorable medley. Sarah enjoyed watching it, and then I learned it as we watched videos and slowly brainwashed her over the weeks leading up to Christmas.
We were never able to catch her singing it oh-so-enthusiastically of her own volition–I know all you other parents know how that goes. But we were able to bribe her to sing it for the camera with a promise of 2 gummi bears at the end! Here is the finished product:
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!
P.S. It was the Best Christmas Ever!
Always on Call
By · CommentsSo, over the past week, I’ve had at least 4 ideas to blog about, and now I can’t think of any of them. Christopher has been working like a dog (and of course, sleeping like a log for a few short hours each night) since Tuesday. He’s been so busy, that he’s even had his business line forwarded to my cell phone – UGH!
Now keep in mind–since I’ve had children, I have gotten pretty lax about making any sort of rush to answer my phone when it rings. Now don’t get me wrong, I still get excited that someone wants to talk to me, but I’m either in an inconvenient position, have way too much background noise, or really need to be focused on protecting the lives of my kiddos. So, I’ve pretty much realized that anyone I really want to talk to will be programmed into my phone or leave me a message–and I’ll call him/her back as soon as I can actually focus on what he/she has to say.
Well, being on call for “business” was okay at first. I was making those mad dashes to get to the phone before it stopped ringing, and figuring out how to explain they weren’t reaching Christopher without sounding like a complete spaz. But yesterday I realized that I really HATE being “on call” all the time. It’s stressful! If I didn’t have a toddler and newborn with me pretty much all the time, it might only be considered sporadically annoying. However, since I already have 2 full-time masters of distraction, a third one (which is incapable of giving me hugs and coos of happiness) is terribly unwelcome. By late Saturday afternoon, I was highly irritable. By evening, I burst into tears of frustration 3 times in one half hour.
But all was well in the end. Instead of attempting to put the children to bed at 8 o’clock, and then being angry when they continued to whine and/or cry for another hour (at least), I gave up the fantasy of getting some rest at home and instead trotted them over to their godfather’s. He and his girlfriend were decorating their newly chopped Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, so attention from them would give me the much needed break from motherhood. To sweeten the evening, Christopher finished work early and surprised everyone by meeting us over there! So we all had a joyous ending to an uncharacteristically stressful week.
Now, if I can only make it to bed now without stopping to “just do ______”! I need my rest before the hustle and bustle starts up again tomorrow!
Chocolate Hamburgers
By · CommentsTo most human beings, chocolate hamburgers would sound disgusting. Thinking about them actually makes me sick to my stomach. To a toddler, however, chocolate anything sounds pretty good. Especially if you don’t really understand that chocolate is a specific flavor, but instead use “chocolate” as an adjective to describe anything that you think tastes yummy. This is how Sarah (almost 2 1/2) understands the concept of chocolate. If she’s eating a pink starburst and you ask her what it tastes like, she’ll say, “chocolate,” because it tastes darn good.
Well, on Friday evening, I was cooking hamburgers and potato wedges. Now, Sarah has never liked hamburgers or potatoes. Unfortunately, she inherited my “picky eater” gene – we are both able to determine whether or not we like something simply by hearing what it’s called or seeing what it looks like. We’ve been able to get past the anti-potato phase by calling the potato wedges french fries. Even though I’ve explained to her that french fries are made from potatoes, she still finds them acceptable and appetizing. So, she was looking forward to french fries, but she did not want to have anything to do with the hamburgers and kept trying to persuade me to let her have noodles instead. I figured we were in for an unpleasant meal at the dinner table because I was putting hamburger on her plate and that was at. She would either have to eat it or go to bed hungry.
One, or both, of our guardian angels must have decided to intercede that night. As I took the hamburgers out of the broiler, Sarah happened to glance at them. I don’t know why, but for some reason she exclaimed, “Oh! You’re making chocolate hamburgers?” with a squeal of delight. Realizing this was a Godsend, I immediately capitalized on her remark and said, “Yes. I can’t believe I forgot to tell you that they were chocolate hamburgers. Don’t they look yummy?” To which Sarah replied, “Oh, I like chocolate hamburgers.”
Not only did we forego the struggle of her eating the hamburger I put on her plate, but she asked for more! She ate twice as much hamburger as I wanted her to, and didn’t even ask for any noodles! Success! She ate all of her dinner and got to have some Iced Hot Chocolate as well.
I wonder if she’d go for chocolate mashed potatoes. . .
