The English Geek

Currently, the End-of-April Edition

• Helping Haley read Hamlet. It's not her favorite. (She read Macbeth last year and loved it. Coincidentally Nathan's class also presented Macbeth, so they sort-of read it together.) I got her a copy from the Simply Shakespeare editions, which has a contemporary translation on one page, Shakespeare's words on the other. Much more manageable for a high school student. (I'm not sold on the idea of high school students reading Shakespeare anyway. I think you need more life experience and education before you can actually enjoy The Bard.)
• Trying to incorporate MUFAs into all of my meals. I'm tired of my belly!
• Gardening a lot. I've not really done much until last week but suddenly I can't get enough of digging in the dirt. Up this week is a trip to the nursery for some new flowers.
• Loving the two purple irises blooming in my front yard.
• Disbelieving that there's only a month of school left.
• Resolving to finish Kaleb's dino quilt before his birthday.
• Also working on a hip to be square quilt to donate to a library fundraiser.
• Scrapbooking Easter and birthday photos.
• Working on a short story based on an image left over from a dream. Hoping I can just finish it, whether or not it's any good!
• Hoping that Jake's last track meet this week—Alpine Days, which is like the state championships for junior high track—goes well and he clears 5'2" in high jump.
• Reading and thoroughly enjoying the novel Once Upon a River and the essay collection Why I Write.
• Savoring this online collection of thoughts about short lines of poetry: life/lines. It is reacquainting me with poetry in a way I didn't realize I needed.
• Trying to decide what book to take on my upcoming trip to Mexico. 11/23/63 by Steven King? Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet? The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron? Or some other book I haven't thought of yet? (If you have suggestions, toss them my way! I want something long and involved but not too hard.)
• Grappling with Nathan's newly-sprouted teenage attitude. It's not my favorite thing. Jake and Haley both went through a similar phase at his age...which doesn't make it easier or more enjoyable.
• Thinking that I need to take Kaleb in to have the dermatologist check the mole he has on his groin. Not sure how he will handle the exam however.
• Keeping my friend Jamie and her daughter in my thoughts and prayers.
• Needing (still!) new running shoes but thinking tomorrow will be the day. Tomorrow,or maybe Wednesday. I don't love shopping for running shoes because they're expensive and because I always feel a little bit silly. This time, however, I am determined to not leave the store without a shoe I actually love. I have HATED my last pair.
• Wishing that my mom would sell her house and move closer to me and my sisters; glad that my mother-in-law finally managed to do just that and is now settled in to her new condo.
• Trying to plan some fun summer traditions to implement this year. Last summer was pretty lame in the fun department.
• Wondering how to get started with college applications and scholarships for Haley; also desperately hoping she'll find a summer job.
• Laughing at something Kaleb just said: "Mom, I see that I have photo albums, and Haley and Jake and Nathan do, but I want to see dad's picture book." Yes. Dad can have a picture book when he actually lets me take his picture. Almost every photo I have of kendell looks like this:

When he stops doing that I will make him a scrapbook!

What's up currently in your world?

 

on the last day of my thirties I:

• Awoke at 6:03 to the melodious sounds of Kaleb, the latest to succumb to the sort-of stomach flu that's been traveling through our family. It's not full-out puking, but just constant nausea. (When it hit me three days ago I seriously started considering taking a pregnancy test!) And, well, different types of visits to the bathroom. Wheeeeeeee!
• Got him taken care of and back in bed and then I slept for 71 more minutes.
• Hugged Haley and Kendell goodbye, after making Kendell his daily PB&H sandwich.
• Got Nathan up and going. Made sure Jake was up and went through the whole "please get ready" thing.
• Made Nathan's lunch.
• Took Jake to school.
• Took Nathan to school.
• Ran to Target for more ginger ale and white bread (anti-nausea remedies at our house)
• Made toast for Kaleb and cleaned up the kitchen while he ate.
• Logged on to Facebook so I could wish my friend Chris a happy birthday!
• Ran a few errands with Kaleb: took Jake his bag of supplies for his track meet (Vitamin Water, fruit leather, and cashews), filled up the van, stopped by the post office, dropped some overdue books off at the library
• Skyped with Kendell, texted with Haley, decided we'd meet for lunch.
• Went to lunch at Chili's. I had a grilled ham and cheese, tortilla soup, and french fries. I regret the fries and should have had the broccoli instead.
• Dropped Kendell and Kaleb off at home and went to Target with Haley (yes. Trip #2 to Target.) No luck.
• Went to Burlington with Haley. I HATE that store and remembered, today, that I still hate it. But, we found a pair of earrings for Prom.
• Came home and, I confess: I took a nap for 38 minutes.
• Started working on laundry—I managed to get 3 loads done today. Am I the only person who can fill a mega-ultra-exceedingly-large washing machine with an entire load of black clothes?
• Cuddled with Kaleb and watched Real Steel with him.
• Went for a 5.5 mile run. Felt grateful that A---I didn't hurl as I didn't give myself enough time after that lunch at Chilis and B---spring flowers are blooming here and smell so sweet! and C---I only had to wait 1 minute and 45 seconds for lights to change and D---I finished in under 50 minutes even with a killer hill at the end.
• Sent Kendell off to school.
• Stretched and realized: I still feel icky. So I took a bath and drank lots of water. Couldn't stand the thought of my usual post-run protein shake.
• Made more toast and ginger ale for Kaleb.
• Took Haley and Nathan to the gym.
• Talked to Jake about his fabulous track meet: he finally cleared 5 feet on the high jump! And he had a good finishing kick on his 400 so he passed someone else right at the finish line. He was beaming. Such a great feeling for a parent!
• Stressed about Haley's prom dress, which I am attempting to modify a little bit. Talked to several people and they confirmed that my plan will work!
• Talked to my mom about the night she labored through to get me here. (She had horrible long deliveries, my poor mother. Like 36 hour marathons. Like, now she would have just had us all by c-section.) She told me that a nurse climbed up on the bed and pushed against her belly with her knee to get me out. I told her I was certain I felt horribly guilty even in utero. We also discussed Haley's birthday dinner and other things.
• Picked the kids up from the gym.
• Ate a pomegranate fruit leather. I didn't know that was what my unhappy belly wanted but I finally feel better.
• Made dinner for the Bigs (pasta for Jake & Haley, frosted mini wheats for Nathan). Kendell didn't want anything. Yes, don't judge me but my kids did eat a hasty dinner at 9:30.
• Blogged.
• Now I'm going to watch Grey's Anatomy. And go to sleep. And wake up to my forties. Which I hope will be fabulous!

I Love

• When the wind catches the blossoms from the flowering plums and it looks like we are having a pink snow storm.
• My grass is finally getting green again
• The tiny buds on my apple tree
  (could there be a more perfect shade of pink?)
• Having a little cash in my wallet
• That when my back pain flares up, I know how to make it stop flaring
• My revived hair color
  (not loving the crows feet, however)
• Reading in bed at night after Kendell's fallen asleep
• Blue toenails
• The fact that right now, I actually have ten toenails to paint blue
• Feeling just a little bit sore from my previous day's workout
• My Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus, even though it's pretty nerdy to be in love with a thesaurus
• Blog comments
• Running skirts, even with the weird looks I sometimes get
• The way right now our valley is full of color: that perfect spring green, and flowering plums and pears and almonds, and the last of the forsythia bushes before they fade to green, and the spatterings of tulips and daffodils and even dandelions
• SDBBE
• A big pile of new library books
• Fast Sunday
• How good dinner tastes on Fast Sunday (I'm making sweet & sour chicken, sticky rice with coconut milk, and an Asian chicken salad, even though it might be weird to have two different chicken forms in one meal)
• My agreement with myself that this week I'm going to enjoy everything, starting by making myself my own it's-my-birthday-week cake tonight, a buttery pound cake in my mary ann cake pan, with strawberries and whipped cream on top.
  (a really bad photo of a cake that is really gorgeous in real life. Must take good photos of cake to share!)
• Whipped cream
• Green alphabet stickers
• Handwritten notes from friends
• Matthew 4:16: The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

What do you love on this beautiful April morning?

Grateful For

• Haley's dedication that got me out of bed and to the gym this morning when I did NOT want to go
• a healthy body that can exercise, even if I am a little chubby these days
• post-workout protein shakes in the dark and quiet house while everyone else is sleeping
• cute workout clothes
• Kendell taking Haley to school in the mornings
• emails from friends who are also patient with my slow replies
• my carpool compadre who is so patient with me and my carpool fumbles (like the Wednesday this month when i totally forgot that yes, I *do* drive on Wednesdays and I have driven every. single. Wednesday since September)
• my kids' hard work at school and seeing those 4.0s on their report cards!
• witnessing a fierce spring windstorm this morning. It could've only been better with more rain.
• I finally, after 2 1/2 hours, finished the sit-at-the-computer tasks I had to do this morning. My butt is tired of sitting but they are FINISHED
• my goal of interspersing long sit-at-the-computer stretches with little bursts of 100 jumping jacks. It probably doesn't really do anything but make me feel like I'm not being a lazy computer-chair potato, but still: my lazy computer-chair potato feeling was alleviated with 3 bunches of 100.
• The hot shower I can finally hit!

Felt important to share my gratitudes this morning!

Moving Forward by Looking Backward

Thank you for your comments and emails about this post. I'm really trying to push forward and to find my way.

Yesterday I was reading my friend Monika's blog and saw this image from a mini scrapbook she made:

I thought about this all day yesterday...during my long run and my long, hot shower and while I was making dinner (chicken pot pie) and even while I was watching The Hunger Games with Haley. Because, you know...I'm 39. And in less than a month I will turn 40. Even though I believe in the idea that you're only as old as you let yourself feel (one reason I run: to run away from getting old), turning 40 feels like a marker. In my thirties I felt like I still had time to change my life and accomplish my dreams. Will it still feel that way when I am in my forties?

I don't know.

Monika's little page made me think: where was I ten years ago? What did that version of myself hope for? Some of the same things I hope for now, but some of my hopes have been fulfilled. What would the almost-30-year-old Amy thing of this almost-40-year-old one? (I think she'd be pleasantly surprised at some things, disappointed in others.) It made me want to look back. Some of the things that defined me ten years ago (March of 2002):

• I was attending college to work on my second bachelor's degree, this time in Secondary Ed. I was bitter and sad about this development in my life because all I really wanted to do was stay home with my three little ones and have one more. But I did learn so much about myself during that time, stuff I never would have figured out or put to rest any other way. Plus I made friends with the other old and bitter Secondary Ed student, Hayley.
• Kendell had just be rehired at Novell and was working the graveyard shift in customer support. This was a tough time for him because A---customer support really stinks and B---graveyard shift. He'd get home at 6:00 in the morning, wake me up, and we'd watch one TV show together before he went to sleep.
• I loved the TV show Alias and I never missed an episode of ER.
• Haley was only six and in first grade. She was a cheery, outgoing little person who loved her first grade teacher with all the devotion a first-grader can muster. (He was an awful teacher and only lasted one year and taught them almost nothing; the only good thing to come out of that year of school was the fact that the majority of their time was spent on writing stories, which I think contributed to her current love of reading.)
• Jake was four. His preschool teacher was named Mrs. Pope and she loved him so much. I still see her every once in awhile and she always knows who I am and asks about Jake. No one could NOT love Jake at four years old. Oh my, he was sweet. He was happy and laughed all the time and the thing he loved the most was being outside with his friends playing Bad Guys. He had to go to daycare for a few hours while I was in class and he hated it.
• Nathan was two. He loved daycare so much he'd sometimes cry when I came to pick him up. He was still so little! He had the softest whitest hair you can imagine—like corn silk. Toss in his bright blue eyes and his chubby cheeks and oh, my. He still had enough Baby left in him that he was a solace to me.
• Kaleb lived in my imagination. Not Kaleb himself, of course. But really: there was the stuff I was learning about being a teacher, and I was refreshing my memory for Algebra so I could make it through the upcoming College Algebra class I had to take, and I worried about money and I cried about not being at home, but in the forefront of my mind was always this: I am not done. I need another baby. Someone is still waiting! I wasn't just baby hungry. I was baby starved. Baby emaciated. "How can I have another baby?" was the first thought I had in the morning and the last thing I prayed about at night.
• I was still thoroughly addicted to drinking Pepsi. I had at least one 32 ounce Pepsi every day.
• For the first time in my life, I had to start watching what I ate. I gained ten pounds in the four months between Christmas and my birthday.
• We only had one vehicle, our 2001 Sienna mini van.
• I was running a little bit, but not enough to keep everything in check.
• I still played Bunco once a month with a group of eleven other women.
• My dad was still alive. His Alzheimer's wasn't even a blip yet. I thought I had decades left with him.
• I hadn't converted to a digital camera yet—I still loved my Pentax SLR. I bought all my film at Costco in the 8 packs.
• I filled up my last Creative Memories album and started using Close to my Heart albums. (I still do!)
• My favorite pair of jeans was one from the Gap that had a button fly.

So much has changed in ten years. So much has stayed the same. There are plenty of things I wish I could change but I feel powerless over; there are other things I did manage to proactively change. I have learned and come to understand many things. I think one of the most important things is just how bewildered I was then at how I wanted so desperately for my life to go one way (the fabulous lives that most of my Bunco friends had) and how it refused to do that. It went in a way I never expected when I was 19. That was bewildering and painful, but I do understand now, at 39, why it happened like it did. There were things I needed to learn and I am grateful, despite the aches of the hard times, for many things from my past decade.

Plus, I still own those button fly jeans!

What were you doing ten years ago?

Random Thoughts from the Past Few Days

(via Francine)

1. Eddard Stark, I hope that calculating Cersei didn't kill you.
2. Mary Oliver, your poems are little oases of peace in my life. Thank you for writing them.
3. What should I do for sharing time*?
4. Squee! Brooke is having a girl!**
5. Windows, I think you were programmed by the devil and not actual human Microsoft programmers.
6. Will my sharing time be long enough?
7. Seriously: where did that font go?
8. It is snowing at last! Wait. I knew this would happen: winter would arrive just in time for spring.
9. My snow crocus are blooming! Color at last!
10. Will my sharing time be too long?
11. I miss my dad and wish I could talk to him right now. Really, really talk to him.
12. I am sick to death of coughing and hacking and having a sore throat and blowing my nose.
13. It is so awesome, having teenagers.
14. I miss having babies and I want another one right now.
15. I'm so glad I don't have a baby right now!
16. I want a cat. An orange tabby. Or a Russian Grey like Emily.
17. My kids are awesome & amazing & wonderful.
18. I am going to take photos of the icicles dripping on the snow crocus right now.***
19. I should have made better visuals for my sharing time.
20. I'm so glad sharing time is finished for the week.
21. Will I ever be able to take my dream trip to the Alps before I'm too old to enjoy it?
22. I have to do sharing time again next Sunday. What should I do?
23. What book should I pick for the next SDBBE round?
24. Please don't crash, because you and all my other babies are in the car together.
25. I hope I never get divorced because the dividing of stuff is ugly and painful. (Wait! that's not the only reason!)
26. little donut holes from Costco. little donut holes from Costco. little donut holes from Costco. little donut holes from Costco. little donut holes from Costco. little donut holes from Costco.
27. Tax return! Already spent...but on something awesome!
28. I miss you Chris. Stupid cold + helping recently-divorced friend divide up his stuff = let's go in two weeks!
29. My sister is awesome.
30. The first drink of water on fast Sunday is the best thing in the entire world.

{key to random thoughts}

*Sharing time = fifteen minute teaching experience for Primary-aged kids (3-11) that is part of my new responsibilities at church, which I haven't blogged over because, well...it's a long story.

**My friend Brooke is the mom to seven boys. She told me last week that she is expecting a girl. I have squeeeeee'd about this approximately 1 million times to myself. In my head. Because she is in Arizona. But I have also squeeeeeeee'd to her on Facebook.

***I did take said photos. But I'm too lazy to go find where Haley put my memory card. Searching down your memory card = one of the less-pleasant aspects of mothering teenagers.

What are your recent random thoughts?

Progressive Tense

My friend Britt does this thing on her blog each month, where she organizes her life-right-now details using the progressive tense (-ing verbs, in other words). Today Becky copied her. Which felt like permission for me to do it, too. So, here is my Currently list:

blogging at Write. Click. Scrapbook. all this week. The topic is teens but I'm also including some general scrapbooking take away ideas for those scrappers who don't have teens. If you aren't a scrapbooker but you want to just write more about your teenagers, the ideas will also work for that!

drinking way too much Pepsi. It's the throwback style, but still. Once I finally work my way through what's left of the six boxes we had at one point, I will personally not buy anymore. Kendell loves it, so he might buy some for himself, but me? I will not. For some reason, it's easier for me to not drink it if he bought it. That's weird.

failing at conquering the conjunctivitis my kids keep giving each other. I think that both Kaleb (who caught it from a kid at school) and Nathan both now have the secondary infection that the antibiotic drops sometimes cause. Which means a trip to the doctor for a different prescription. Jake's got it now and he looks like a zombie.

making Jake, who is staying home from school today due to said pink eye, clean and vaccuum the basement.

celebrating that Haley didn't catch the pink eye before her Preference dance on Saturday, that she found the perfect red shoes to go with her dress, and that the pictures I took of their group (all TWELVE COUPLES) turned out OK. I still need to Photoshop them and find somewhere to upload them so all those anxious teens can get their pics.

reading One Day and The Best American Poems 2011. Last night I finished Salvaging the Bones, which was lovely.

loving  blue cheese dressing. OK, I always love it, but recently I can't stop making meals wherein I can have some sort of carb-based item to dip in blue cheese. Or chicken is good to dip, too. Haley asked me why I don't just make more salad if I want to eat more blue cheese dressing. Because, honestly: I really don't love salad. Please don't revoke my Real Woman Card, OK?

scrapbooking lots of teen layouts for my week, and then I'm going to get all of Christmas scrapped.

writing an essay that is growing, sort of, out of this post.

mocking this race, the Outside the Ice Half Marathon. 13.1 miles on an indoor track? Seriously. That sounds like the most non-fun race I can imagine. It's "approximately" 47.75 laps. Sure. It's on the Olympic Oval, but still. Two hours of running in circles? With 250 people on the same track? REALLY? Is it just me or is this about as enticing as, say, meals of Top Ramen for the next six week? I think I'd pick the Top Ramen.

running hardly at all anyway.

going to the sculpting class at the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I love it!

cooking meatloaf for dinner tomorrow night. My friend Julie's kids told me the other day that they don't like meatloaf. I think I need to share my recipe with her because, all modesty aside: I make a mean meatloaf!

wishing, hoping, praying and considering doing a snow dance for more snow. Or any snow. I hate cold, dry, brown winters. Please, please snow!

wanting to get better control of my sarcasm talent. As in...keep it to myself better.

wondering if my doctor is right and that my recent bout of brain fog can be attributed to my sleep talking. I have an appointment in a couple of weeks with a sleep disorders clinic. Hmmmmm.

wearing my favorite sweats. Wool socks. A long sleeved blue t-shirt.

needing to get busy on all the work I need to do today.

Happy -inging to you this day!

I Believe (the Civic Duties edition)

1. I believe that if you use a public restroom, it is your responsibility to actually flush. More, it is your duty to make sure everything gets flushed, including the grody leftover bits of toilet seat liner.

2. I believe it is morally disgusting (not to mention physically icky) to leave said public restroom without washing your hands.

3. I believe that if you are the first car in line for a left-turn light, you are required to put down your cell phone, stop playing with your kids, and pay attention. Then, when the light changes to green, you must rapidly get yourself across the turn. This is especially true for those lights known to allow approximately 3.2 cars through before changing back to red.

4. I believe there is a measure of spirituality in what you do with your grocery cart in the parking lot. "A truly spiritual person puts her cart back in the cart-thingee," a friend once told me, and I heartily agree.

5. I believe that you should drive down the street as if you need to get somewhere, even if you don't. Because, you know, other people do.

There. I feel better having gotten that off my chest. What failed civic duties bug you?

in my Heart

A couple of weeks ago, there was a bloggity/scrapbookity thing going around some of the scrapbook blogs I read.  It started here. My Write.Click.Scrapbook friend Keshet reminded me a few days later that I meant to do it. The challenge is to simply write down some things that are in your heart. While I try to be authentic and honest on my blog, I sometimes don't write the things I've been wanting to write because (as always) there are so many things to do with my time. Sometimes blogging gets put on the back burner. But somehow, everything I like to do has been on the back burner lately.  

I've been swamped with busy-ness. I haven't actually accomplished anything. Half of my pantry is downstairs and all of the stuff that goes in my linen closet is scattered in various temporary-storage pockets. I haven't finished a layout, worked my way through any of my writing goals, or stitched a single stitch on the two  three quilts I thought I would definitely finish this month. We still need to paint the hall and the kitchen and the front room. I didn't take Haley to get the pedicure I've been promising her for ages. I haven't gone on a single fall hike or done an autumn photo shoot. I've just...hopped from thing to thing like a hyperactive kid who forgot her Ritalin.

But tonight I'm going to do it: just write down some things that are in my heart, right now.

• I love my kids. OK, that's hardly newsworthy. I've always loved them. But right now seems especially good. They're all wrapped up in the complexities of their lives, but I feel connected to each of them in new ways. Partly this is because of changes I've been trying to make within myself—to try to be calm in the face of antagonism and to not lose my patience and, most importantly, to keep my heart open to them. They are wonderful and marvelous and amazing and I just am so grateful to be their mom!
• The mountains this fall are gorgeous. I cannot remember them ever being so red. I think it's from all the rain we got this spring, but whatever the cause: I can't stop looking at them. I've taken to eating my lunch outside in the backyard, just so I can gaze at the mountains. I remind myself nearly every day: it's fall, it's fall! There is no better time of the year than September through November.
• All of the busy-ness that's making it so I can't do much of anything, creative-wise, is making me insane. One of my friends once said something that felt like a compliment: "You're the kind of person who always has to have something creative you're working on." When I don't get some solitude and a chance to write, or scrapbook, or quilt, I start getting frustrated. My creative urges get expressed in ever-sharpening snarkiness. Sarcasm as a creative outlet might lead to some laughter but I can be mean if I don't stop myself. I don't like that part of me.
• I love that, eleven years into my running project, I am still learning about myself and this sport. I've been a fairly consistent 9:45-10:00-miler runner forever. If I pushed I could eek out a 9:00 mile but not for very many miles. I did speed work and hill repeats to no avail: my pace stayed the same. I had no idea that the way to improve my consistent speed was to run more. But somewhere in my marathon training, I've gotten faster. Not on my long runs—I still do those at my 10:00-mile pace. But on the shorter runs—5-8 miles—I've gotten faster. I can hold an 8:30 pace for about six miles now. I don't share that out of a desire to brag but as an astonishment. I didn't expect this change to happen. But I'll take it as long as it lasts!
• Speaking of running, I am starting to get anxious about what will happen after the marathon. Well, after the marathon and then the half marathon I'm going to run at the end of October. While I still haven't managed to make the scale budge, I have, finally, lost some girth. Last week when I put on my favorite jeans, I discovered they were too big on the waist and nearly loose in the thighs. As I never lose inches on my legs, this is another astonishment. But I am scared that as I start cutting my mileage back, the inches will all come back. I can't keep up my 40-mile weeks, but it seems they're the only way I can maintain.
• I hate that I'm afraid of gaining weight. I want to be happy and content in my own skin and not feel like my body is always on the brink of mutiny. I want to know I could still be happy if I gained, say, 50 pounds. I don't want my happiness to be dependent upon what size I wear. This feels like another personal failure, feeling that way.
• My library is hosting the writer Brian Doyle. I am unseemingly excited about this. Like, every time I think of it about it I do a little happy dance.

Tell me: what's in your heart?

Who Knew?

• Forget the hot pad. The thing that calms down back spasms is an ice pack. Who knew? We still have the ones Kendell came home with after his hip surgery. They stay flexible so they conform right along your spine. Twenty minutes of relaxing with the ice pack and I can function again for a few hours.
• It is FREEZING here but my daffodils are blooming! "Spring in Utah," as the saying goes. It's highly bipolar.
• I am totally in love with NPR. Drives Kendell & the kids crazy! I started listening to it in November when my favorite radio station went off the air. I've felt so much more involved with the world and what is happening.
• My favorite radio station came back on in the air in December, but I didn't know until last week when Becky finally clued me in.
• My kids will all eat orange chicken. You know...the completely unhealthy stuff from Panda or Flaming Wok. (If I could have the Flaming Wok chicken and the Panda chow mein, my meal would be happy.) That makes one—exactly one—meal that everyone will eat without complaining. Kaleb said on Monday, when he wasn't excited about the dinner I made—spaghetti with red sauce—"Can't we go eat at the Hot Wok instead?" (tee hee)
• While I love our charter school's curriculum for the older kids, I'm not crazy about the kindergarten class. I finally told Kaleb's teacher, when she stopped by the library one day, that I think they are pushing them TOO hard—and she agreed. Not that my complaining will change anything, but my realization has at least given me some peace with Kaleb's progress. They can push phonics all they want at school, but at home I'm going with the old-fashioned way of learning to read. I'm helping him figure out math instead of getting frustrated that he can't do it on his own. (What normal kindergartener CAN carry numbers anyway?) I'm not going to stress about it now.
• Eating too many Lindt truffle balls in an effort to energize yourself through a two-week stretch of intensive class prep WILL make you gain weight. Seriously. Trust me on this.

What's surprised you lately?