My friend, Tara, shared this with me and I thought it was definitely something I wanted to share with all of you.
Glad to share my train ride with you all.
September 28, 2011
September 26, 2011
Why I Love Him
It’s important to be married to someone who gets you.
Someone who not only knows your strange, little quirks, but embraces them.
When we moved into this house, the downstairs bathroom was broken. Not the whole bathroom…just the toilet.
We tried to fix it, but it turned out the problem was bigger than we originally thought, and so it’s taken some time.
On Sunday, Real Man went to Sears Hardware to pick up the last (hopefully) part to make it right.
Now, over the summer, I started picking up a few items here and there to decorate said bathroom in a beach theme.
Real Man thought I was a little silly with the beach theme and registered his…concerns…however, he let me run with it.
So, imagine my surprise when, on Sunday, Real Man came home and called out, “Aim? Can you come here for a minute?”
I followed him out to the garage where he was standing behind his Jeep, opening the trunk.
“I made an impulse buy today, and I can return it if you don’t like it, but I think you will.”
It’s the most godawful, cheesiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life and I love it more than I can say.
Does that guy know me, or what?
September 18, 2011
Success
We are puzzle people.
We love crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, mystery puzzles, logic puzzles.
Basically, if it’s a puzzle, we are in.
We particularly love jigsaw puzzles.
We all will work on them, but Monkey in the Middle is really the puzzler, out of the kids. He can focus on a puzzle for hours if an adult is working with him. Not sure if it’s the puzzle he loves or the adult one-to-one interaction that keeps him there, but the puzzle stamina is impressive.
When we are on vacation at the beach, we usually have a puzzle going on. we arrive with about five for the week and buy more while we are there.
This past summer, toward the end of our last beach week, I went to the Ben Franklin and picked up n awesome looking, 750 piece puzzle.
However, time got away from us and we only got to start it. So, we broke it down and brought or home.
We were still moving in and unpacking, so we didn’t open it ip again for about a week.
It’s been almost a month now and yesterday morning, we finished it. The two of us were so happy, we were jumping up and giving each other hugs and high fives.
It was tricky, but we stuck with it and were successful and learned some lessons along the way.
1. You cannot work a jigsaw puzzle while holding a baby.
2. It is impossible to not lose pieces to a 750 piece jigsaw puzzle when you have four children. it’s complete, but there are three holes where the missing pieces belong.
3. Completing a project with one of your children is a great, great feeling.
4. Monkey in the Middle is a freaking spacial relations phenom. He can pick up any random piece and see exactly where it goes.
5. I need a jigsaw puzzle table.
6. I need a new prescription for my glasses.
September 17, 2011
Deep Peace
Jeff, a friend of mine, signs off many of his posts on Facebook with the words “Deep Peace.”
I think about that phrase, often, and try to associate it with certain moments in my life.
Two nights ago, I went looking for the monkeys.
It was close to bedtime and I couldn’t hear them, so I wondered what they were “right in the middle of, Mom!” so that bedtime would have to be postponed by 15 minutes.
I walked into Monkey Girl’s room and found this scene.
Deep Peace.
September 13, 2011
September 12, 2011
Threats and Promises
My cardinal rule of parenting (other than love the heck outta your babies) is “Never make a threat or a promise you don’t intend to keep.”
This means that I work very hard at holding my tongue when I’m angry before I ground someone for a week or take away the xBox for 5 months.
Because once I say it, I hold to it, no matter how hard it is.
So, there’s a lotta tongue biting around here.
However, I believe it is just as important to keep your promises to your kids.
They need to know that they can count on you to do what you say you will do.
So, imagine my moment of panic when Monkey in the Middle reminded me two days before school started that, back in late June when school first got out, I promised to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese before school started again in the fall.
As soon as he said it, I remembered saying it, and in this house, a promise is a promise.
So, on Labor Day, Real Man and I loaded those monkeys up in the car and headed out to Chuck E. Cheese.
And. We. Had. Fun.
Like, serious fun.
I say it twice because CEC is not known for being fun for parents.
For kids, yes.
For parents, it’s more like a nuclear stress test.
This time, not so bad.
Not everyone was totally into it…
But most of us were.
This was one promise I was happy to keep.
September 9, 2011
Rise Up
Spending my weekend holding family and friends close to my heart.
Never forget.
September 6, 2011
FEMA
So, insurance, with their crafty wording that would put William Shakespeare to shame, rather swiftly denied our claim for the damage in the basement.
Next step, now that President Obama has declared our county one of the federal disaster areas as a result of Irene’s path of destruction, was to call FEMA.
Real Man filled out the required paperwork online and was contacted to say they’d be by “sometime.”
Imagine our surprise when the doorbell rang today with a FEMA inspector.
I answered the door, and there he stood.
Real Man needed to get some paperwork for him, so the FEMA guy and I chatted for a few minutes.
This guy is from Florida, and has been assigned to NJ. He’s been up here since the hurricane and is working 7 days a week, about 18 hours a day, going to houses, inspecting and taking photos of the damage and sending them on to the people who either accept or deny the claims.
He’s exhausted, he misses his family, he’s been through his own hardships with hurricanes and tropical storms.
He certainly had the right to be grumpy, short-tempered, attitude-y, and unfriendly.
He was, quite simply, delightful.
FEMA should be proud of this guy as their representative.
I can imagine that for people who lost everything, this man would be an incredible comfort, and that is the kind of representative that SHOULD be working for this organization.
So, kudos to FEMA for swift attention and for hiring such a man as the one who showed up at our door.
For some people, I can see that he would have been absolutely what they needed at this time of their lives.
September 5, 2011
Summers End
What I’ll Miss:
Kisses On Demand
Sweaty little heads running in for a snack or four
Coming across mid-day snoozers curled up together on the couch
Inhaling baby goodness anytime I want
The possibility of going to the pool
Daylight until 8
What I Look Forward To:
After-school chatter about their days
After-school walks in the crisp, autumn air
Halloween
Bonding with my new students and becoming immersed in the world of the teenager, once again
Hot meals on cool evenings
My tv shows coming back!
I’m ready for fall.
I know people say Spring brings with it the promise of new things, but for me, Fall is the time of family and home and hearth and good things.
Bring it on!
September 4, 2011
Where the Children Sleep
Came across an article about a photo essay called “Where the Children Sleep.”
Pretty powerful.
Made me wander into my monkey’s bedrooms and realize that it said that these are children of privilege, compared to so many othr children in the world.
They are safe and secure and so very, very lucky to have been born where they were.
