Once upon a time. . .

. . . which was only about three weeks ago, we were on vacation.  Meals were as easy as just showing up, buffets meant that there was no whining about not liking what was being served.

 No beds to make.

 No homework to check up on.

 Sandals or bare feet all the time

Coatis and iguanas clambering around.

 A half dozen swimming pools meant that "I'm bored" was not uttered during that entire week.

A lazy river inner tube ride.

Using the children as my cover, I got to swim with dolphins (which they happened to enjoy as well) and I bought amazing pictures of my children with dolphins, snorkeling, holding macaws, iguanas and parrots.

I watched Thea climb on a rope line over water, twice, and got to snorkel with her and see that she loves it as much as I do.

And yes, there were a few not so magical moments: waiting on a bridge to take pictures of my family.  Waiting, waiting, waiting.  Until I figured they had taken another route back so I hiked around Xel-Ha to the floating bridge, which was bouncing away (? high tide) and only had hand-railings on every other section.  Visions of me and the camera getting bounced into the Caribbean danced in my head, and the humiliation cake was iced by the Xel-Ha lifeguard coming out onto the bridge asking if a) I had too many rum and Cokes and b) did I need any help?  (To which I answered a) No. (I hate rum and Cokes) and b) No, thank you.  Although my interior monologue, was telling him to be gone before I push him off of the bouncing bridge. Then after making it back to the main area, finding no family at any of the meeting places (not to worry, I had the key to the locker, so I had dry clothes and the cash), they come walking up, Steve with a huge smile on his face that I wanted to wipe off with towel that had cleaned the bottom of the seal tank.

The biggest feat of the vacation was going without internet access from Tuesday through Friday because in-room Wi-Fi was $100 per week.  (Seriously?  Internet access is de rigeur in this day and age.)  Wi-Fi at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya was found in a 20' x 6' area in the lobby, the closer to the window the better, which counts as one of the hotel's few faults.

All in all, a good week, until it was over 

Happy Easter & Passover

Easter weekend at our house has been pretty laid back.  Saturday night Steve, Thea and Micah went to the seder at Temple Micah; I went to The Sew Must Go On at Olde City Quilts.  It's usually 4 pm until 1 am, but I got there a little late, and most everyone was packing up and ready to head out at midnight.  I finished 32 more pinwheels, whose fate I am still contemplating - and since on a good evening at home, finishing 12 is an accomplishment, it was a good night.

The kids' Easter baskets were thrown together in haste at around 1:30 this morning.  Oma provided a good bit of the chocolate, a patient gave me a pink bunny and a yellow duck stuffed animal and chocolate bunnies for them, so I did next to nothing other than throw a few quarters in the plastic eggs (also supplied by Oma.)

Easter breakfast was the usual three-way split: Thea with her steamed eggs, Micah with cereal and pancakes for Steve, sausages and pineapple for all.

Then the kids and I got going on making food for Steve to take with him when he goes to visit Grandma.  Micah made matzoh balls with me, and Thea was in charge of the potato latkes and was fearlessly flipping them despite getting hit with a few pot shots of hot oil.  She also took on cooking the chicken for the soup without much in the way of supervision from me.  This was one of the first times that boredom didn't get the best of  either one of them mid-project; they stuck with me until the last latke came out of the pan and the matzoh balls were transferred into the soup pot.

Now it's just a question of airing out the house to get rid of the fried latke smell and getting back to trying to get a little bit organized.

Voiceless

From February 24, 2012. 

A cold virus began to take hold of the insides of my head last weekend, rattling through my throat, sinuses and nose.  A container of cranberry-raspberry juice kept it at bay while we were visiting my mother last Sunday through Tuesday, but the ickiness came back once I was back at work.

Leaving me today with an annoying rasp of a voice today.  So I spent my day off by myself, trying to not talk.

I sewed a decorative ribbon and a Brazilian flag onto small white totes I purchased at Michael's.  This weekend is the Girl Scouts' Thinking Day celebration and Thea's troop is representing Brazil.  Fortunately for us, the costumes are samba skirts for half the group and gauchos for the other half.  In case you need to have all the dots connected, I barely got Thea to wear the Maori skirt last year, so I was not looking forward to convincing her to wear a ruffly skirt.

Souper Sew

From March 23, 2012 aka Our Tenth Anniversary or the 2nd Anniversary for Micah's Left Ear Canal

Another Friday spent at Olde City Quilts at a Souper Sew.  The crab quilt got a blue border on it and I started putting together pieces of the fabrics that made up the crab quilt into a back for it.  Sewing has turned into my therapist, and it probably costs as much as conventional therapy.  I got to try out yet another Bernina, an Artista 730.  It had a touch screen and chirped much to much for my liking - and amongst all the buttons and icons on the screen I couldn't find the 'mute' button, so I found myself saying "Oh, shut up, will you?" with every beep.

Bugged Stomach

Yesterday I worked in the morning, picked up Thea at school at 3:15 and we went to the library so she could work on her Third Grade Inquiry paper and pick up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  We spent a couple hours there and then went to fetch Micah from Kindergarten EDP and made dinner.  Thea managed to finish her homework at the library, so they were free to play before and after dinner.

We started the getting ready for bed process at 8 pm, which counts for ahead of schedule compared with most days.  Since Thea finished getting ready, she wanted to read. Whatever Thea does, Micah also wants to do, so he grabbed his Harriet Tubman book and his Alligators & Crocodile book, and also hopped on our bed.  Just before sending them off to bed, I looked at the page number of the Harry Potter book and she was on page 446.  In a book I thought she had just picked up that afternoon.

After everyone was asleep, I went downstairs to sew.  Something did not feel right in my stomach, but I put it off on the way I sit while sewing: on the edge of the love seat, hunched over the sewing machine that sits on the coffee table.  It's a bit of an ergonomic disaster, but it usually causes discomfort in my butt and legs from sitting on the edge, rather than in the stomach.

I finished the twelve pinwheels I was working on, with the brain trying to remember if we had any Pepto-Bismal in the house.  And then all hell broke loose, and lunch, dinner and everything else that was in my stomach decided to relocate.  I question my choice of having the powder room painted green, not very soothing for those who are queasy.

Once upon a time I debated which I would dislike more, having cold symptoms for two weeks or so or one to days of a stomach virus - and at that time, the vote went to the stomach virus.  As of last night, I have reconsidered and changed my mind, I'll take head congestion and coughing anytime, anywhere.

And if projectile vomiting and dry heaves were not indignity enough, horrible chills came right on its heels and made me shiver and shake.   The normal two quilts, down comfort with duvet and fleece blanket could not make a dent in how cold I felt.  It took Steve coming home and putting three more blankets over me and warming up two rice / buckwheat pillows to finally over come the worst of it so I could fall asleep at 3:30 am.  And three Cokes with crushed ice to overcome the taste in my mouth that was telling me that my tongue had kissed road kill.

And for being out sick today, I really did just stay in bed and sleep.  No TV, no computer, no reading.   A whole day where I could have been at the sewing machine, and I just could not do it.  My first accomplishment for the day was sorting and putting away one basket of laundry and making the bed, which didn't happen until after 2 pm.  Second accomplishment was getting to Thea's school to pick her up and take her to religious school by way of Forest Jewelers to get a new watch battery for Steve's wristwatch and Wawa to get Thea a snack.

Fortunately, no one else in the house has come down this with this - so I'm blaming the lunch food at work yesterday.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, my Micah Moo.  It's hard to believe that you're six years old.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the next year will bring as you continue to amaze us.

Bits and Jots

Once upon a time, I wrote a blog, not well and definitely not often, but I tried to maintain a chronicle of what was going on in our lives.  Having kids who have school and social lives, plus working full-time, has just about drained my batteries for blogging - and life has just been sort of normal:  no surgeries, relatively few doctors' appointments, no traveling.

But every now and then there is a pang of guilt and today was one of those days.

I now have most Fridays off, which I am loving, loving, loving.  Not that I am actually accomplishing much, but sometimes it's not about how much I get done.

I've gone to a Friday Souper Sew and a The Sew Must Go On at Olde City Quilts, so I am still trying to sew and quilt.  I am also starting a Saturday Sampler at Pennington Quilt Works.  It's $30 for the starting package and then if the month's square is finished by the next Saturday Sampler meeting, the next square is free.  If it's not finished, the next square costs $6.

This morning I went to Ying Hua International School, Thea's alma mater for Pre-K through grade 1, to talk to the preschool class about nursing.  Though it wasn't much of a talk, it was more of a hands-on, let's try out the stethoscope and bandage up the classroom's stuffed animals.  The class was just so cute: there was the jump-right-in-with-boundless-enthusiasm kid, the shy-guy who has to warm up to what's going on, but once he does, he figures out how to disassemble the oto-ophthalmoscope, the little girl who has some mad bandaging skills and does it perfectly the first time.  I don't think they learned all that much about nursing, but I think they had fun.

Meanwhile, the kids are taking skating classes on Saturday mornings.  Thea's taking another trip through Alpha 2 during the next session; Micah is going back on the ice mostly to hang out with his friend, Benjamin.

Thea is in her second year of  Brownies, accumulating a few more patches and badges for me to sew on, selling cookies - it's her one chance to hang out with girls her own age.  We've been having friends from school over: Tommy, Jeffrey, Adam, for Wii dates.  We're lucky because Adam comes conveniently packaged with Veronica, who is in Kindergarten with Micah - and they live right up Krebs Road from us.  How lucky is that?  Thea just finished up her stint on Rainbow Patrol, which is her school's version of safety patrol, keeping kindergarteners from running in the halls.  The Third Grade Chorus is getting ready for the Spring Concert, chorus day is one day we have not problem getting Thea off to school; she already singing most of the spring program.

Micah is a chatterbox, much too much at times. Still needs a lot of working on patience, waiting and taking turns in conversation.  He's starting to read, which is a skill that also seems to require more patience than he is capable of.  Micah has a "I just want to do it, dammit" attitude, which just mesh with patiently trying to put the sounds that letters make into words.  After ice skating, it will be time to decide whether it's Spring Soccer or something else for him.

The 100th day of school has come and gone.  I've got to look up how this tradition came into being, it was not on the school calendar at Lewisdale Elementary School in the mid- to late 1960s.  There was an assembly at school, which Thea found to be too loud.  If the school year is about 180 days long, why would the 100th day be more of a cause for celebration than the 90th day or wherever the half way point falls?

Time to cut and sew. . . .