I took off work “early” on Friday (having only put in 47 hours for the week) and picked up Tabby from school. She has been wanting to have a mommy/daughter date for a while now and that was the plan for Friday night. We went to paint pottery then had dinner together. After that, we did a little shopping (T got a new outfit and I got a new pair of flip-flops my feet LOVE). Then we came home and made muffins and finished our evening off by a viewing of one of my all time favorite movies, Swiss Family Robinson. Continue reading “Weekend Fun”
This Mother’s Day is pretty bittersweet for me. It is the first one where I don’t have a mother to celebrate with. I am missing her like crazy and reflecting on the amazing mother and grandmother she was. Continue reading “Mama’s Day”
We had a great weekend planned. We were supposed to spend Friday celebrating Ben’s birthday at Chuck E Cheese (his choice). We were supposed to have recital practice and a hike and a birthday party and wiring at the new house on Saturday. We were supposed to get together with family on Sunday and grocery shop and all that. But some little germs made different plans for us.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks, I tell ya! We spent the weekend before last HOME. That was really nice. The kids tested for their yellow belts -SUCCESS! And we went to two birthday parties
We have been skiing with the kids for over 4 years now, since Tabby was shy of three years old! It’s incredible to think it’s been that long. Skiing with little kids is NO JOKE. It’s at very least cold and frequently snowy and windy. It’s a grueling thing for an adult to get everything he needs into place, suiting up and carrying ALL THE GEAR where it needs to go, let alone a kid. We usually end up carrying ALL the gear to save sanity. That combined with traffic and ridiculous expense frequently made us question our sanity for pushing the issue.
BUT we saw glimpses of how worth it it could be as Tabby got proficient, but then we had to do it all over again with Ben. We had a couple of family ski days last year and earlier this year that were borderline disastrous. My boots got left in Denver and I had to wait in a ridiculously long line to rent some while Matt wrangled the kids. The drives were horrendous. We had a drunk screaming in the hall when we stayed overnight. Ben WOULD NOT LISTEN. At one point last year I was so fed up with equipment carrying that I consigned the lot of our skis to a ski valet for some ridiculous price just so I didn’t have to carry them a couple blocks.
And then, this past weekend, it just clicked. Ben can suddenly ski. And not just the easy slopes that bore the rest of us, but some pretty awesome terrain. Intermediate slopes, through trees and over bumps. He (mostly) listens. He is enthusiastic. He is excited. It was FUN. The good snow and equally good weather helped, no doubt, but it was great. Matt and I took him up for a solo day with Mommy and Daddy on Saturday and then the whole family, Papa and Gaga included went with us on Sunday. We were up for hours and really really enjoyed ourselves.
Back in January when my sister and I were up for a ski day with just Dad, I thanked him for teaching us to ski. It’s a sport I truly LOVE and so I really appreciate that he took the time and energy and money to teach us and I think I’ve always appreciated it at some level. But it’s only now that I’m a parent that I fully realize the commitment it took to getting two little girls up on a Saturday morning and onto the slopes. And while I’m sure my mom played her part, probably in getting gear ready and undoubtedly other ways, it was always Dad’s thing to take us skiing. That’s a pretty awesome dad.
And I’m more than glad to be able to return the favor for my own kids. Hopefully they’ll be skiing with me into my 60s.
2013 got derailed in a couple of ways, namely my new and markedly more intense job and Mom’s death. Between these two things, I’m impressed to have just survived the year, yet, when I look back on my 2013 resolutions, I didn’t do so badly. When adjusted for the handicaps of 2013, I will consider it a win.
So what does 2014 have in store for me? Good things, I hope.
Family
I recently read The Five Love Languages of Children and took some time to chat with the kids about how/when they feel best loved by us. Quality time was the clear marker. They love reading, cooking and crafting together and going on outings and trips. With that and other things in mind:
make a concerted effort to do things with the kids – big and small
continue the tradition of Sunday night dinners with my dad, sister and grandma
get back in the habit of taking photos, even if it’s just with our phones
have date nights at least monthly with Matt
continue to encourage personal responsibility through chores and schoolwork
Personal
Since Mom passed away, I’ve put on about 5 lbs that add to some other slippage that had already occurred. Beyond losing a few pounds and getting my running back on track, I’d like to finish another triathlon. There’s a few other small areas I’d like to work on too:
the health and fitness stuff
finish another triathlon
run my 1/2 marathon in April in 2:15 or less
keep reading great books, 52 for the year
buy myself a few new clothes now and again – and not just workout clothes as I’d prefer
blog at least twice a week, including some of our family’s favorite new recipes
At Work
plan my week before it starts
finish the dang website before the end of January
meet my direct mail and press release goals
At Home
continue our excellent track record of at-home cooking for dinner
fill the freezer with extras so we don’t eat out for lunch (on weekends) as much
It was a fast and furious ending to 2013. I had crazy fits and starts trying to finish a project at work (long story short, it STILL isn’t done). I spent a ton of time playing Santa and chef de cuisine. I caught strep throat and left Matt alone with 4 kids while I slept for 48 hours straight. We packed up most of our house and started killing things off on the before-we-sell-to-do-list. We rang in the New Year with some great friends and then spent the first week of 2014 relaxing and skiing. Blogging has been one of the last things on my mind. But it’s important to me and I do want to get back to it.
In a subsequent post, I plan to list off resolutions for last year and new ones for this year, but now I want to reflect on 2013. I started to do a retrospective questionnaire about the year and realized it was pointless. The most major thing about 2013 was definitely losing my mom and all roads sort of lead back to that terrible event. But I’m a glass-is-half-full kind of girl all the way around and I know Mom wouldn’t want me dwelling on the crap, so I’m going to list off 10 great things that happened last year.
I watched my sweet kiddos grow and mature another year – they’re exceeding my expectations and are truly lovely little people. Tabby can read anything you put in front of her and is making amazing strides in math, music and SKIING. Ben has all the good foundations to start kindergarten and learned to ride a bike and can ski with the best of ’em. Best of all, I’m proud of their characters. They are kind, thoughtful people.
I got to spend another wonderful year with my hubby who continues to be the best husband and father to my kiddos I could ask for. We’ve laughed, cried, tackled crazy projects together and had lots of fun.
I found a new closeness with my dad, sister, family, friends and coworkers who were so incredible when Mom passed away. You all made it bearable.
We got to take a wonderful trip with Matt’s step mom, sister and niece. It was a great experience we all fully enjoyed.
I completed a sprint triathlon. That still kind of boggles my mind.
I sought and was awarded a promotion to marketing manager, a role I’m still trying to figure out.
We decided to sell our house and build a new one.
We had amazing adventures skiing and camping.
We got to gather with our extended, extended family for our bi-annual reunion in August.
We got hedgehogs!
I can’t say I’m sad to see 2013 go and I’m a little apprehensive about my first official calendar year without Mom, but I’m going to do my best to continue to enjoy life and find pleasure in the good stuff. It’s still there. I just wish Mom was here to share it with us.
Well things are rolling along sometimes fairly normally. The kids are doing great, growing and learning by leaps and bounds. We register Ben for kindergarten next month. I can hardly believe it. Tabby has been having fun with spirit week at her school (see green hair above) and even Ben got in on the action.
My nutcracker sweets.
The kids have been enjoying the season and all of the fun things it has to offer. We saw The Nutcracker with some friends last week. Everyone really enjoyed it. Tabby has been studying Waltz of the Flowers in music class and she and her little buddies could be seen doing hand motions as it played. The kids both took home nutcrackers (joy! rapture!) to add to our Christmas decorations.
Tabby baked cookies yesterday and has asked to make apple cider caramels again. She’s also been asking about Elf on the Shelf which all of her friends have. We do not have one and I made an executive decision that this was not the year to get it. I love the creativity behind setting up the tableaus, but I a) don’t have time and b) am not really into the Santa deception thing, particularly as it pertains to manipulating my children’s behavior.
We have been doing lots on the house situation, particularly as it pertains to getting our house ready to sell. We are finished retiling the master bathroom (a project we should have done YEARS AGO). It was ridiculously tedious because there were tons of things to work around and a diagonal wall. We had a family friend come in and help us knock out the last stage in record time, and despite how the above looks (don’t mark tiles when it’s late and you are STOOPID) …
It turned out really well. AND I’m so glad to have it done. Well mostly done – still have to put the trim back and reset the toilet. OY.
We have also been busy picking finishes for the new house. Above is our fireplace surround tile (bottom) and kitchen backsplash (top). I am very excited to see all of this start to take shape … but it will be a while. We had a snafu with our site plan and we STILL haven’t gone to permitting. It is resolved and we got a nice $25k option for FREE out of the deal, but it is frustrating. It should go in by the end of this week. I am anxious to start seeing dirt flying. Hopefully BEFORE we put our house on the market.
What else has been happening?
Matt and I saw a wholly unsatisfactory Broncos game (they lost). At least the seats were awesome.
It’s been cold (this hampered the tile project) … but also warm.
Tabby lost another tooth, but the tooth fairy still has yet to get ahold of one of Tabby’s teeth – she kept the last one and lost this one before she could turn it in. The note was more than fair payment though, I say.
I made quite a few Sunday dinners, including Pioneer Woman’s pot roast. YUM.
Overall, I’m doing OK and in some ways, improving, I think. I have decided that based on my job right now and our lives that early morning workouts are no longer working for me, so I have been doing evening workouts for over a week now and it actually seems to be sticking. Thank goodness. Not that I’ll say no to a nice early(ish) morning run when it works, but as a rule, this is working better for me right now. Working out just makes me feel good. And I’d been missing it and it seems to be helping.
We jam-packed this weekend – and it was great!
