Faith

When I was in high school, I went to a retreat where you had to take a stack of magazines and make a poster of things you have faith in.  Because most magazines don’t just have pictures of Jesus, you were forced to think about everyday things you trust.  Sometimes I’ll remember that and start thinking about the crazy things I have faith in:  car brakes, bunk beds, tear free shampoo, my dentist…

and my brother’s dog, Mel.  Thanks for snuggling so gently with my children.

Austin: Still Weird

Last weekend we took our longest (two children) trip yet to Austin for my sister’s baby shower.  The drive was amazingly great- we didn’t stop even one time on the way there or the way home.  We didn’t even drive like that before we had kids, but Rush was happy and Tate decided to catch up on sleep.  Every once in awhile he would open his eyes, notice we were still in the car, then go right back to sleep.  He even took an extra little snooze shortly after we arrived at my sisters, before the pack-n-play was even set up yet.

Our closest friends have been gradually moving to Austin, so it’s going to get more and more complicated trying to see everyone on a weekend visit.  We did get to join the Rodens for dinner on Friday night.  I always love going to their house.  It’s one of those homes that makes me want to walk around and look at everything and either try to copy it in my own home or start stealing things.

I’m trying to figure out what kind of special relationship Rush and Wren have…if I’m Wren’s godmother and Rush’s mother and Kate is Rush’s godmother and Wren’s mother…I don’t think there’s a name for that. 

The shower was lovely.  I ate more than my share of little gourmet ham sandwiches and stuffed mushrooms and cupcakes.  We had a great dinner at Casey and Chris’s that night, although I was totally offended by their washers set.

I know she works at UT and borrowed the set from her job for the weekend, but still.  Casey and Chris, watch out because I’ve notified the Corps of Cadets and they’ll be sending someone over to your house for a little talk later this week.

Firsts

We’ve had a lot of firsts this week:

Tate and Rush’s first concert (at Discovery Green, always fun)

Tate’s first solid-ish food

He liked it!  Of course, we don’t tend to shy away from food in this family.  What a sweetie.

And my first time working out with a personal trainer.  Or more accurately my first time working out.

Cuties

Things I should be doing right now:

1.  Finishing the gift for my sister’s baby shower this weekend

2.  Going through the zillion diaper bags and tote bags by our front door and getting organized:  Rush diaper bag, Tate diaper bag, out and about in the neighborhood bag…

3.  Getting Rush’s school stuff together

4.  Picking up our bedroom (I can’t believe I’m thirty years old and I still have to clean my room.  It seems like you should hit a certain age, like 30, and your room should just stay clean all the time.  And it should look like a magazine bedroom.)

5. Reading (my first booksale novel of the year:  Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham)



So what’s going to win?  The baby shower gift has to win tonight.  The real question is, can I convince Trent to turn off America’s Test Kitchen so I can watch Grease or State Fair while I work?  But wait, it's Tuesday, so there's a new Glee.  It's the perfect compromise!

Book Sale!

I’m coming off a book sale adrenaline high.  Our fifth book sale weekend was every bit as wonderful as the first time. 

I was fairly restrained on Saturday, picking up only two novels and a copy of O Ye Jigs and Juleps for myself, and then stocking up on an excellent selection of kids books.  I really focused on children’s books on Saturday because –although I get that it makes me a cliché to say it- I have most of The Cat in the Hat memorized.  We read a lot of kids books here and I’m ready for some new material.  I wasn’t waiting for bag day either, because those teachers with their carts are ruthless in snatching up the children’s books.

But today was bag day, time to go crazy.  As always, it’s $10 for a brown paper bag filled with as many books as you can cram in.  It’s worth noting that Kellaura’s bag was packed so tightly that it could be flipped upside down –Blizzard style- and nothing would fall out.  It set a new standard.  Kellaura, Amber, Amber’s mom, and I all ended up doing our final sorting and packing together this year, which was nice, and then met up with the rest of our families for the big reveal.  I really love that as exciting as the book sale is, and as much as I love having all these books around our house, my very favorite part is watching my friends talk about the books in their bags, one by one.  I think some of my picks were a little ambitious –the biography of Marie Curie, postpartum Pilates that you do with your baby- leaning more towards the person I want to be as opposed to the person I am.  But that’s what great about books:  if I actually read the biography of Marie Curie, I then become a person who has read the biography of Marie Curie.



I’m not even sure what my top finds were this year; my books are piled in front of me, waiting for me to dig through them.



And to make the weekend extra special, Amber made us all tote bags with personalized library cards on them. 



Not only did we all use our bags for the sale, I can guarantee that I will be using this bag all the time.  It’s already dirty from being pushed along the floor of the convention center when it got too heavy to carry.  I was so touched by the quote that Amber chose for my bag, because it is so perfect and it is so nice that she knows me well enough to know how perfect it is. 



My favorite weekend of the year is drawing to a close.  Thankfully we’ll reap the rewards all year long.  I’m off to pick a new book to start reading!

Always Free Day

When I was in fourth grade, my teacher, Mrs. Williams, had a system in her classroom called tokens.  Tokens were little red laminated circles (or apples, who can remember?) that she passed out during the week for good grades, improved grades, being nice to people, helping with things – there were all different ways to get tokens.  Then on Friday afternoon after lunch she would put on a movie –I think it was always The NeverEnding Story- and set out the tokens store.  We could use our tokens to buy things every fourth grader wants:  fancy pencils, those little monster finger puppets, koosh balls, or if you really saved up, books. 

Tokens and movies were all we did on Friday afternoons, all year long.  At some point during the year my friend Carly started saying “Friday free day always free day” every Friday.  At least in my memory that’s what she said and somehow a few years ago I started saying it every Friday too.  For the past few years I stumble out of bed on Friday mornings and on the way to the shower look at Trent and say “Friday free day always free day.”

I’ve implemented Friday free day at our house these days.  After naps on Friday, we all go to the backyard and we’re staying there until Trent gets home.  It doesn’t matter how long it lasts, or if Rush going to the back door and says “All done!”, I’m not making dinner and we’re playing in the yard.

I have moments when I forget what it’s like to have two children, even as I’m holding one and getting a drink for the other.  So I usually like to bring a book outside with me so it can sit on the cooler and not get read.  That’s the plan for today.

Friday free day always free day!

Thanks Mom

To our moms – thank you for everything.   We love you!

Happy Mother’s Day!

In This Scenario, I’m Grizz

With Mother’s Day a few days away, I spent five seconds reflecting on my role as a mother to two wonderful children. 

Assuming food and love are included, the rest of my job can be succinctly wrapped up in one quote from –what else- 30 Rock:

“Grizz is in charge of sitting on me when I get over-stimulated.”

That pretty much covers it.

The Hours are Short Also

I always hear the “the days are long but the years are short” referring to having little kids.  For me right now, the days are short too.  We have the occasionally long hour or two, sometimes in the afternoons between 3 and 4 or 5 and 6, but generally the days are flying.



I go to get Tate out of his crib and he’s rolling everywhere, perpendicular to the sides, laying on his side munching on his hands.  When did he get so big?  Isn’t it still January?  Trent and I contemplated trimming his hair last weekend, but scissors in hand, we couldn’t do it.  His hair is too fabulous to cut right now.



Yesterday Rush picked up a bottle of balsamic vinegar off the counter, removed off the lid, took a swig, then looked at me and said “YUM.”  When I took the bottle away, he went back for more.  He also tried to give his doll a drink of water by sticking her head in the ice/water dispensing part of the refrigerator.  These moments don’t create long days for us, they create trips outside to run and scream off some energy.



I’m starting to wonder what the summer will hold for us, when Rush isn’t going to school and the weather is mind numbingly, body stiflingly, oppressively, dehydratingly hot.  I might look into getting the book 15 Minutes Outside, by a woman who vowed to go outside with her kids at least 15 minutes every day for a year, no matter what the weather.  I don’t need the book for ideas as much as fortification against 100 degree days.  I’m mentally planning out buckets of water and washcloths in the freezer.  Maybe I’ll start freezing containers of water to make big ice cubes for the pool on the porch.

For today though, I’m not worried about the heat. It’s surprisingly cool and we’re heading to the park after naps.  I don’t know how long it takes to shed a corporate job, but it’s apparently longer than two years.  I’m still constantly amazed by the weather and how it affects my day; the weather is meaningless in an office.  Plus I've discovered that I can still hold a long, informed conversation about staplers.  But some parts are fading more quickly.  I know my Excel skills are getting rusty and my brain has totally blocked out the memory of late nights in the office on the second business day of the month, which would be today.  Sitting at my computer talking to an accountant while it became nighttime and the clean crews started working on offices – those days were long.  Days spent with Rush and Tate:  too short!