Work In Progress

2012 is getting away from me

maybe just january is getting away from me.

regardless.

i'm grateful for my iphone, because it's way easier to pull it out, snap a quick pic, and carry on. are the photos the same quality as my big girl camera? no. are they better than no pictures? yes.

so i'm good with it.

so here's what we've been doing in january:

 

 

1. harper figured out how to do her own ponytails.

2. we've entered the realm of Saturday Morning Swim Practice.

3. we had a thai food double date with dear friends ... and the boys played their itouches the whole time.

4. henry had his first official swim meet and did a great job. starts and turns ... and breaststroke kick ... and butterfly ... need some work. but his freestyle is strong and his backstroke is amazing. so i'm more than proud, and totally excited to see where this will take him.

5. we took the house off the market. then we did some final cleaning/touch-up stuff that we just hadn't gotten around to doing. then we re-listed it. traffic was good the first two weeks, we had a solid nibble, then nothing. and yet the feedback, still, is all positive. the likelihood of turning that house into a rental is becoming very high.

6. i finally ... FINALLY ... started unpacking my scrappy stuff. after harper bugging me for weeks to do it so we could do something arty.

7. i spent my birthday day sitting on the couch, kitty in lap, watching ellen degeneres. pretty great way to spend a morning. i should do that more often. all that "errands and cleaning and unpacking and being responsible" crap is for the birds.

8. the downside of swimming: occasionally, practices are held from 7-8:30 p.m., and when those practices fall on nights marc is out of town, it's a very late night for miss harper. so we do what we can to keep her entertained and cooperative. sometimes that means letting her shine a flashlight into her mouth and then taking a picture of it in the rear-view mirror.

9. i mentioned she wanted to get arty, right? one saturday, that meant she made three different sets of hand puppets, and put on three different puppet shows for me.

10. a couple of times this month, marc was actually home. and two of those days he was home, he ended up free for lunch. on this particular day, his free-for-lunch day coincided with my day to take my car back to toyota and leave it there. (starting to think my 11-year-old car may not have five more years in it.) so i had a lunch date.

11. we spent martin luther king jr day at a neighbor's house ... she and i chatted non-stop, while her boy and mine played airsoft, and her girl used mine as face painting practice. we all won.

12. henry got braces. hello, gawky, awkward adolescence.

and there you go: january. already.

2012 is going too fast.

true story.

to set the scene:

about a month before christmas, we started to hear: "all of my friends have a phone," coming from our beloved firstborn. then we started to hear: "if i had a phone, i could let you know if swimming got done early or if i needed to be picked up from someone's house, so you wouldn't have sit there or hurry up because things changed."

he was playing the "it would make your life easier" card.

smarty pants.

what he didn't know is that his father and i were already discussing a phone for those same reasons. i don't stay when he has swimming, but in this day and age of a general lack of public and/or pay phones in schools, i didn't want him to be at the mercy of asking strangers if he could borrow their phone, thus announcing his parent wasn't there to get him and he was all alone in the big, bad world.

what he also didn't know is that we'd already been phone shopping. we'd gone over the various options ... cheap phone with no bells and whistles, pre-paid phone, less cheap phone with maybe one bell and half a whistle.

then we realized that we could reactivate marc's old old iphone and stick henry on our family plan. cheapest idea of them all, for the most part, because if the phone was stolen or broken or otherwise incapacitated, we wouldn't be out a dime. the only setback is that henry would be out a phone. which would teach him a lesson.

win-win-win.

so christmas came, we sent henry on a little treasure hunt, at the end of which a phone rang while he was standing in his room. he found it, answered, and took 30 seconds to register that he was talking on his present.

needless to say, he was thrilled.

a month later, this newfound "freedom" and "grown-up-ness" the phone has given henry is starting to leak into his view of himself and how he can talk to his mother. he's started "telling" me rather than "asking" me. i don't like that.

this is the text i received from him yesterday, and the text i sent back to him:

little punk.

as soon as he walked in the door, i put this child of mine ... who is now taller than me ... in a headlock. had to show him who is still boss.

he may have a phone, but he is still a child. and deferring to mama is something i will demand well into the days of him being a foot taller than i am.

it's twins!!

remember a year ago, when marc and i had spring break to ourselves to pack, and we ended up falling head-over-heels for some fancy schmancy couches? couches that totally derailed my plans for white, white, and more white? and then i debated and pro/conned my little brains out for months?

well, in october we decided okay ... we love the couches. even after moving and seeing the finished space we still loved them and knew they were the way we wanted to go.

we went to the store to order them and were told delivery would be right around thanksgiving. we placed the order, and were told no, actually, delivery would be just before christmas. seriously? ugh. two months without furniture. of any kind. a few days later, we received the actual invoice and it said sorry for the delay, but delivery would actually be mid-freaking-january.

i was suddenly really, really irritated with these couches.

nearly four months of living in a house without a lick of furniture on the main floor. (remember: no dining room table, no chairs, nothing in the front room, and the crafty room populated only with boxes.) then, soon after, our island stools arrived. then, a couple of weeks later, our dining room chairs arrived. and we pulled the folding table out of the garage. and it was fancy. then, two months later, the dining room table arrived sans leaves. (jury's still out on whether we're keeping it.) and finally, yesterday, after months of waiting and wondering whether we did the right thing ...

there they were.

and they are amazing.

and i'm so glad we went with the 8' size, because it's perfectly proportioned for the room, and there's still breathing room if we ever want two smaller accent chairs.

and i may have sat on one for about an hour and a half last night, reading magazines and becoming one with their amazingness.

good things do come to those who wait. and now we continue to wait ... for a rug, curtains, a table on which to set my drink ... and the other house to sell so we can get those things.

what 38 looks like

this ...

is the happy birthday i got from my smart ass almost-12-years-old-might-not-make-it-to-13-if-he-keeps-it-up son yesterday.

thanks, henry.

i had already decided weeks ago that i would not, in fact, turn 38 this year. 37 was a good number, i've always had a strange affinity for threes and sevens together, and i was good with not being any closer to 40.

but after reading henry's little note yesterday, i decided to take it as a compliment and make peace with 38.

i don't want to get older, but as long as i don't look my age, i'm okay with that. sure, i could lose some weight - i'm working on that. (let's not mention that i've been "working on it" since the new millenium. i think "baby weight" can no longer be officially blamed when your "baby" is on a ski trip with his middle school class at the current moment in time.) on a good day, i can totally pass for early 30s, and that's okay with me.

i like what i've accomplished in the last eight years. i had baby #2, i got to work for a scrapbooking magazine and later write a book for them, i got to travel, my marriage grew ever stronger and better, we built an amazing house, i raised some pretty great kids ... other than the "baby weight" that i can't seem to shake, my 30s have been pretty awesome. i have legitimacy, i have validity, i have a decent list of accomplishments, and that's not something you can say in your 20s. heck, these days, those are hard things to claim in your early 30s. seems to me, owning 38 is a powerful thing. so, okay.

and on top of that power, i'm edging toward the next decade with nary a wrinkle to my name.

(we won't mention all the white hair on my head. but thanks to l'oreal medium maple brown, i have deniability.)

38 looks pretty okay.

 

i'm obsessed right now with ...

this song:

 

this fabric ...

this photo ...

|via here|

the promise of someday unpacking my scrappy room and making it pretty ...

this bedding ...

|via here|

the idea of spring, even though we haven't even had winter yet ...

(which is sad, really.)

new year already?

gah. i didn't meet nearly enough of my goals from last year.

whoops.

looking over the list from then, i have to say that, nearly word for word, this year's list would look the same.

however, this year i'm framing my list not as resolutions or tasks, but as intentions.

* this year, i intend to make myself a priority. i will start my day with something healthy, and when i have a few extra minutes i won't spend them mindlessly surfing for some instantaneous happy (i'm lookin' at YOU, pinterest!). i'll instead do something healthy: five minutes of crunches, five minutes of high knees, five minutes of cleaning and bagging fresh veggies, etc.

* this year, i intend to make my family a priority. i will be more forceful in my less-screen-time stance when my kids go straight to the computer. i will be more forceful in getting us all involved in an activity or game versus everyone going to his or her own corner. i will be more forceful that marc be present and involved with the kids when he's home, and not just sitting on the couch with henry and an xbox controller. i will be more forceful in getting us up and around for church on sunday morning, instead of letting marc talk me into sleeping in since we get up early every day.

*this year, i intend to put good, whole foods into myself and my family. we eat out far too often, and the kids rely way too much on pop-tarts for breakfast. and harper eats like crap at school. i intend to make that grocery list and meal plan stick, and will use that crock-pot more often. and i will involve the kids in making breakfast and lunch, so that they learn to make their own healthy choices. none of us eats badly, but when life gets crazy and the schedule goes haywire, food is the first place where we cut time. i need to be intentional in preparing ahead of time so that schedules be damned ... there is a good meal in the house that's just as quick as a pop-tart. and i'm gonna learn to bake that bread.

* this year, i intend to make fewer goals, and be more intentional in finishing them. one project a month - conceive, prepare, assemble, complete. one thing at a time, start to finish. i find myself all too often starting one thing, then i see something else that needs to be done so i work on that for a bit, then i move something out of the way and find a third thing that needs attention ... you know how it is. no more.

* this year, i intend to slow down my brain ... bite things off in smaller chunks ... proceed with intention and do it the right way. if i'm not ready to say yes, then i say no. less stress. less pressure. less disappointment and frustration. this is the year that i lay intentional groundwork to what comes next, and i lay it strong and sturdy so that everything that builds from here will be strong and solid and good.

 

and those are my intentions. and i shall print them out somewhere that i can see them daily to hold myself accountable. because if there's one thing i've learned in the past few months, it's that i can't count on anyone else to get me where i need to be. i can't count on the people in my life to pull through for me, and i can't use them as an excuse when things don't work out the way i planned. this is my life, and i will get it together before i turn 40. which is ... like ... five years away still. right. ahem.

happy birthday, wyatt!!

two years. big little man!

you are the funniest little creature, and seeing how far you've come in two years makes my heart happy.

you are perfect, and i couldn't love you more if you were my own kiddo.

adventures with snowflake: final week

i can finally wrap up snowflake's adventures with us. christmas has come and gone, family has come and gone, my ability to breathe has come and gone, and snowflake has officially scooted back to the north pole until next year.

day 20 started with snowflake crocheting herself a scarf out of sparkly "elf string," as harper called it. later in the day, harper realized the wreath i made for the front door also included elf string. whoops.

day 21, snowflake, gray kitty, and their friends yoshi, pink penguin, and puffles one, two, and three were caught playing an exciting game of scrabble.

day 22, snowflake got up early and prepared harper a last-day-of-school-for-2011 lunch of nutella, peanut butter, chocolate truffles, chickpeas, and, of course, syrup. gray kitty's contribution was a tin of sardines.

day 23, snowflake left harper a recipe for an elf's favorite cookie. we kinda ran out of time to make the cookies. maybe tomorrow.

day 24, snowflake's last with us. she was found on the fireplace mantle with a stack of presents for harper, henry, and wyatt (a new christmas book for each of them), and a note saying how much fun she had with us in december.

see  you in 11 months, snowflake!

and perhaps i'll get to a christmas recap later this weekend. then again, perhaps not. we'll see if the nyquil plays nice with my ability to recall and put words together. typing this post has worn me out in itself.

 

happy new year!

adventures with snowflake: day 16-19

nothing like four days in one.

of course, that's kind of par for the course around here. i feel like i have to do four days' worth of stuff every single day.

gah.

but onto snowflake ...

friday morning, harper had to look a little harder than usual. but she finally found snowflake and gray kitty on a shelf in the kitchen with some christmas decorations. guess they were having a "snowmen at night" sort of adventure.

on saturday morning we awoke to donuts on the table. snowflake must have brought us breakfast ... and she had some for herself, as well ...

harp begged us all day to please let her try an elf donut. we finally said okay, seeing that snowflake hadn't eaten any all day. harper took one of the chocolate with sprinkles, popped it in her mouth, and said, "mom! elf donuts taste just like cheerios but sweeter!"

go figure.

sunday morning, snowflake and gray kitty were playing hard to get. or hide and seek. probably hide and seek.

harper was so tickled with snowflake yesterday that she drew her a lovely picture. and wrote her a lovely note that read "i love you, elf!" and wrapped it all up in 12 layers of wrapping paper. this morning, when she came downstairs, she saw snowflake under the tree ... with her present all unwrapped.

harper was giddy.

five more days.

i have to admit, i might miss snowflake a little.

oh - by the way - we went to see santa yesterday:

and table update: still no word from pottery barn. sure would like it if they would at least get back to us to tell us that we are screwed. seems to me that would be the polite thing to do.

i swear, "polite" doesn't exist anymore. it's sad, really.

adventures with snowflake: day 14 & 15

yesterday, snowflake & gray kitty worked a jigsaw puzzle ...

today we discovered that at some point in the night, snowflake decided to add some sparkle to the garland in the loft window. and it didn't go well. and when gray kitty tried to help, it didn't go well for her, either.

what's that, you say? on day 14 they appear to be sitting on a real piece of furniture? well, yes, indeed. our dining room table finally arrived, after a two month saga. that is still going.

during the process of designing our house, we found the bennett dining table at pottery barn and decided it was exactly almost what we wanted. we (i) wanted something rustic, long & narrow, reclaimed. this was the not-reclaimed version of that vision. but the dimensions were perfect for the space allotted for dining, and fully extended this table will seat 10-12 people, which is what we need. so we decided either we'd find someone who could make a real reclaimed wood table, and i sent out several email queries, or we would, worst case scenario, get the pottery barn one.

around the time we closed on the house, it had become clear that having a table made wasn't in the cards. the people who actually bothered to return my emails were either a) not getting it, or b) out of our budget. so back to pottery barn we went. and the table was marked down. marc and i talked it over and decided to pull the trigger.

three days after discovering the marked down price, we called to order it. as the story of my life goes, the table was, at that point, discontinued and nowhere to be found.

seriously.

the person i spoke with looked in the computer and told me that there were four tables left. "in the warehouse?" i asked. "in the country," she replied. all four were currently floor models ... three in california, one in arizona.

upside? all were marked down even further.

so i called all four of those stores. one didn't get back to me, one no longer had the table, one was helpful, but said the table wasn't in great condition, and the third - the arizona store - said yes, they have the table and it was only ever used in the window display and it's in good shape and they could get it to us.

if we work it out with ups.

so we called ups with the dimensions and weight, and found a table that size would cost us $1,700 to ship freight.

i threw up a little.

that was more than twice the cost of the table after markdowns!

so trey, the uber-helpful guy at pottery barn in arizona, and i discussed our options and ways around freight charges. then marc was telling me that a friend of ours runs a shipping company, and he could get one of his trucks to get it to us for about $300.

sold.

so two mondays ago, the truck went to pick up the table ... and found it wrapped in an unsatisfactory way. (one month of the delay was all about trying to find a box for the darn thing, and ending up with the pottery barn stock guys creating their own box out of other boxes. apparently, 10' long boxes aren't readily available.) three days later, the truck showed up again, said the boxing was now good, and started the trip to minnesota.

monday evening, we got word that the table was in. we had, literally, 90 minutes to get henry to swimming, drive 20 minutes to the warehouse, load the table into my suv, drive 20 minutes home, unload the table, drive back to pick up henry from swimming. and it all worked out perfectly, except that because both seats had to be down, harper had to ride freestyle all the way home. which made me ill, and made her giggle.

but we finally, after two months, had it in our house. marc went to build it and found that one leg had worked itself loose, but it wasn't anything a little wood glue wouldn't fix. then he found he was short two bolts, two nuts, and a 2" piece of dowel. nothing a trip to the hardware store first thing tuesday morning wouldn't fix. just before lunch, and just before leaving on a plane for a business trip, marc had the table ready to go. and it looks perfect in the room.

then i said the fateful words, "lets pull out the leaves to see how it looks fully extended."

um ...

no leaves.

are you kidding me?

that was two days ago. still haven't heard back from trey as to where our leaves are. however, if they are gone, we're up a creek without a table. and we're back to square one. and now we have to somehow get rid of this table that took us two months to get in the first place. because even though it's totally functional without the leaves, we need to seat more than six people. that was the whole friggin' point all along.

(must. control. stress.)

all of this is coming on top of so much other stress and uncertainty, and i'm at the edge. this morning i got up, got the kids off to school, went back to bed to sleep another hour and get rid of a crazy headache, and woke up at 11. i think my body is telling me it's done.

so tonight i will again call trey in arizona and see what he knows. and i will wait for marc to get home from his trip ... his flight has been delayed for the past two hours, so who knows if he'll even get here tonight. and i will go up and referee the fight that seems to have broken out upstairs in the past two minutes. and i will try to keep the big picture in mind and realize that, in the scheme of things, these are not big problems.