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Monday Musings: A Saint Joseph’s Day to Remember

25 Mar
This St. Joseph's Day was one I won't soon forget.

This St. Joseph’s Day was one I won’t soon forget.

If you’ve been a longtime reader, you know I love my sweets. If you’ve been reading even for a short time, you probably know I love my sweets.

And if so, then you also know how much I love my zeppole on St. Joseph’s Day. So much so that I was literally counting down the hours this year. I could not wait for the day to arrive.

I had a whole plan in my head: Tuesday was St. Joseph’s Day and it’s also the day I normally type all my stories for the Cranston Herald. My plan was to get up and ready like a normal day and as.soon.as the kids got on the bus, I’d get right in the car, go and get a zeppole, and come home and savor it, all alone while I typed the morning away.

Sounds like a very good plan, right?

Right.

Wrong.

6:50 am Tuesday morning I go in to wake Child #1, who lifts her head and says, “Oooh I don’t feel good at all. My head hurts, my stomach hurts, my throat hurts.”

Yikes. I talk her into going in. I knew she’d be missing another day that week due to some oral surgery coming up and her attendance record has been less than stellar already. She’s had a tough year. So I gave her some Advil for the headache and she dragged herself out the door.

7:20 am I wake up Child #2, who lifts her head and says, “Ooooh I don’t feel good. My head hurts, my stomach hurts, my throat hurts.”

No. No, no, no, no.

No way.

7:22 am…I’m sure you can guess. Child #3. Same wake up. Literally, she said the same thing.

I see my zeppole dreams fading. Fast.

By 7:45 am, I had one kid in tears and one kid heading in that direction.

I let them stay home, knowing full well that it meant no zeppole for me and also meant one pretty mad oldest kid when she got home and realized all the other sickies got to stay home and she didn’t.

By 8:00 am I had started my typing. It was snowing, sleeting, raining. Miserable day out. Two sick kids in and NO zeppole for me.

This was not what I had planned at all.

As I typed, I shared on Facebook that I had sick kids, that I had no zeppole, that I was eating Apple Jacks while I typed.

I was so sad.

And I never let on to my kids that it was St. Joseph’s Day. I didn’t want them to feel bad about being sick.

Suddenly though, a Facebook friend, another mom from our elementary school put a comment under one of my pathetic status updates:  Do you want me to bring you a zeppole?

Well, yes. Actually I do. I would love for someone to do that for me.

But do I say yes?

I did. I said yes. I wanted one so badly. But then I said to her she didn’t have to because she didn’t really live close by, probably 10 minutes away and it was nasty out. Raining, snowing. I didn’t want her dragging her kids out, going to the bakery, in and out, coming here, all just for me.

But she did.

She did that just for me. Just so I could have a zeppole.

I was so incredibly touched.

In a world where there’s such terrible news out there: murders and missing people and fires and robberies, joblessness and more and more and more, there are some truly very nice people out there too.

A zeppole may not seem like a lot to some people, but to me on Tuesday it was huge, and it was such a downer to be missing out on that.

Not only did I get my zeppole, I got a boost in my confidence in people overall.

It was a St. Joseph’s Day I won’t soon forget.

Thank you Angela!

My box of zeppole. My name is on the box and everything. And, you can see by all the raindrops how nasty it was outside.

My box of zeppole. My name is on the box and everything. And, you can see by all the raindrops how nasty it was outside.

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Monday Musings: Seize Every Opportunity

18 Mar
Hearing Olivia Culpo speak in July 2012 had a lasting impact on our girls.

Hearing Olivia Culpo speak in July 2012 had a lasting impact on our girls.

Last summer, we had the opportunity to meet Ms. Olivia Culpo, who was then Miss USA and is now Miss Universe, also an alum from my high school. The girls and I went to hear her speak, they stood with me while I interviewed her for the newspaper, and then we  stood in line for an hour for a quick meet and greet and an autograph.

On the way home, we talked about what we’d just experienced and the girls talked to me about which parts of her speech had an impact on them, as she was such a candid, animated speaker. They laughed about some of her funny stories, but we talked more seriously about one of her messages: don’t be afraid to take a risk.

Having never been a “pageant person” before, Olivia entered Miss USA despite her family’s hesitations, and won on her first time out there. A year later, she was winning Miss Universe too, and it was all because she wasn’t afraid to try something, to be a leader, to take a risk.

One of my favorite photos from our day: Caroline meeting and shaking hands with President Obama.

One of my favorite photos from our day: Caroline meeting and shaking hands with President Obama.

At the time, we didn’t know if Caroline was going to win the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge contest. We were awaiting notification, due the following week. What we did know however, was that Caroline had hesitated in entering because her sister was entering also, and she knew that only one of the two of them, if either of them, could win, and she was afraid of that. We talked that day after meeting Olivia about the fact that this too was a risk, and we’d wait and see what happened, but that at least she’d put herself out there, taken that risk.

And it turns out, she won.

With that, she’s had some of the most amazing experiences of her life, all in the past year, all because she wasn’t afraid to take a risk, to go out of her comfort zone.

She often gets asked to speak to groups of people, both adults and kids, and two of the messages that she always makes sure to emphasize when she speaks, are not to be afraid to take a risk and to always put in 100% effort into all you do.

After she won, a friend said to me,  “Your motto should be ‘Seize Every Opportunity’ because you’re always trying everything. If there’s something out there to do, you’ll do it.”

And she’s right. I think it’s important to reach for the stars, even if you miss on occasion. Most likely you won’t miss every time.

When I was in high school, with my parents’ help, I applied for a grant. I put in a proposal to go to New Zealand to study reading instruction. At the time, New Zealand was tops; on the forefront of reading and language instruction. It was a big risk, a scary thing to apply for, and ultimately, I did not get the grant. But, I’ll never forget applying for it, and receiving that letter stating that even though my proposal wasn’t chosen, it was a strong one, and one of the runners up. That gave me confidence to try again, to take a risk when another future opportunity arose.

Since that high school grant opportunity, I’ve taken on many challenges, reinventing myself in my careers again and again. Sometimes those challenges came through in my favor, and sometimes they didn’t, but each risk and result has made me stronger and more confident. As a journalist, each time I’ve won a New England or Rhode Island Press Association award, I’ve had to take a risk by submitting what I think is my best work, to be judged by others. It’s risky putting myself out there, and sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t. But I never say, “Oooh that’s too scary, I’m not even going to try,” or even “Yikes! That’s a lot of extra effort.”

This week we received notification that a grant Elizabeth had applied for, the Disney Friends For Change grant, a proposal she’d submitted on behalf of her class, was not going to be given to them. She was so disappointed. She and several friends had started a school newspaper, and this grant was going to improve what they’d begun, take it to the next level. However, the notification didn’t just say that she didn’t get it, it said that her efforts and dedication in applying for the grant were to be commended and that she shouldn’t give up on her particular project.

It was positive reinforcement, recognizing the fact that she took a risk, went the extra mile, seized an opportunity that not many would take the time to do. The very first thing she said was, “I think there’s another one. We can try again.”

I love that.

Congratulations to Alexandra. She took a risk, entered a contest and came in second place!

Congratulations to Alexandra. She took a risk, entered a contest and came in second place!

On Wednesday night, Alexandra competed in a cooking contest of her own. She had entered the recipe for her Sunshine Salad into the Sodexo Future Chefs competition in our city. Out of 17 elementary schools, ten students were chosen to compete, making their salads and having them judged by real chefs from our community.

She took the risk, entered the recipe in February and was chosen to compete in March.

She competed Wednesday night and took Second Place. Second, out of ten, in our whole city, at seven years old.

That’s taking a risk. That’s seizing an opportunity.

And that’s a memory she, and we, will never forget.

Childhood is a journey, as is parenthood. I hope that we are teaching our kids to be confident, to be leaders, to try everything and to take risks. I hope that the bursts of success that they experience  when they take the risks will encourage them to keep going and trying again when they don’t necessarily see that success. I hope that they learn that putting in the extra effort, taking the extra time, going the extra mile, really does all pay off in the end.

Seize.Every.Opportunity.

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Monday Musings: The Blizzard of 2013: The long and short of it and all the in between

11 Feb
On Friday morning it didn't seem like the snow was going to do a whole lot.

On Friday morning it didn’t seem like the snow was going to do a whole lot.

I’m sitting here right now as I type this, watching the Grammy’s with my family. The TV is on and the lights are on. Most importantly, the heat is on and running.

We survived the Blizzard of 2013, Nemo, relatively unscathed. As a native New Englander, I have memories of the Blizzard of 1978, unnamed as it was, and was excited for my kids to have memories of their own of such an event; something for them to tell their children about the way I speak of 1978.

Leading up to the blizzard last week, the reports were flowing in. This was going to be the biggest winter storm in years. Loads of snow, big drifts, high winds and power outages. The meteorologists were having a field day.

I was excited. Stressed. Worried. Excited. Prepared. Nervous. Excited.

On Wednesday night, two days before the snow started, the shelves at the grocery store were already empty. The parking lot-chock full.

On Wednesday night, two days before the snow started, the shelves at the grocery store were already empty. The parking lot-chock full.

I spent much of Thursday running around in between covering stories, getting everything we’d be needing for the storm and everything for which my coupons would be expiring over the weekend, so that by Thursday night I was pretty exhausted, but we were ready. I saw crazy lines at the gas station and in the grocery stores. The shelves were empty on Wednesday night, the night before-the night before the storm.

School was canceled for Friday right out of the gate. So we got up Friday morning and did everything we could to be ready and the day passed pretty uneventfully as the snow began to pile up. We knew the worst of the storm was going to be on Friday night, overnight.  We were expecting hurricane-force winds and we knew we’d be most likely losing power during one of the coldest months of the year.

But by Friday night at bedtime we had 13" of snow...and then the power went out.

By Friday night at bedtime we had 13″ of snow…and then the power went out.

Sure enough, the power went off at 9:00 pm on Friday night. Just prior to that time, the winds had really picked up. It was howling and the snow was coming in sideways. The one little tree in our yard was banging against the front of our house.

We saw blue lightning, and then green and red and pink.

Friday night first night no powerIt was crazy exciting and scary all at the same time. Once the power went off we knew we’d be having the Family Campout right in the middle of our living room. We brought out the sleeping bags for the kids, as well as every blanket we owned, and set them up in the middle, with us on the two couches on either side of them.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, it was stunning outside, to say the least. And freezing cold inside. It had gone down from my toasty 72 degrees to 58 degrees in our house. Brrr….

The branches of our bushes in the backyard were weighed down with the weight of the snow that had fallen overnight.

The branches of our bushes in the backyard were weighed down with the weight of the snow that had fallen overnight.

And outside, so much snow. On our deck alone, where I’d been doing my measuring every hour or two, we were now up to 21″ of snow, but in other spots there was as much as three feet of snow. Our driveway was so full of snow it was hard to even see the cars, and the snow came right up to our front door.

coffee preppedWe started to dig out a little as Don went out snowblowing and I started to dig in to our blizzard preparations. I had filled two thermoses the night before: one with regular and one with decaf coffee; a must if I was going to face the day with a smile.

Since we had no electricity I threw together a quick Blizzard Breakfast Trail Mix and made the kids some hot chocolate while they played The Game of Life. We started getting a steady stream of texts from family and friends, checking in. I laughed as some of our information about the local goings-on were coming in from around the country. Not having smart phones, we couldn’t easily access the internet, but we were thankful for those who could, keeping us updated.

Blizzard Nemo Trail Mix

Blizzard Nemo Trail Mix: Chex, chocolate chips, craisins and marshmallows.

We passed the day on Friday planning our next meal. Between the two of us we’d purchased all “on top of the stove” items to eat, since we are lucky enough to have a gas stove (and gas heated hot water also) and we would be able to prepare hot foods.  In between his trips outside to snow blow, Don made a soup on top of the stove.

Having a gas stove helped us to heat our house for two days.

Having a gas stove helped us to heat our house for two days.

Doing so made our house heat up several degrees. We got a phone call with a tip from a neighbor which made lots of sense: if you boil water on your stove it will heat up your house. Having seen success with the hot soup, we decided to try it. Sure enough, our house stayed at a steamy 72 degrees as long as we kept the water boiling.

Keeping the water running kept the pipes from bursting, at least we think that's what kept the pipes from bursting.

Keeping the water running kept the pipes from bursting, at least we think that’s what kept the pipes from bursting.

By the end of Saturday, we had condensation dripping down the walls of our entire house. But we were warm! We also kept our water running, trickling really, just a bit, all the time with the hopes that our pipes would not freeze.

It must’ve worked, they did not freeze. I think that was what worried me most going into the storm. It was going to be eight degrees overnight on Saturday night. With no power, I was worried about being cold, and bursting pipes.

In the memory-making category, we tried to do fun things with the kids so that they’d be remembering this blizzard for years to come, other than for the fact that our walls dripped with condensation for two days.

Saturday night's dinner by candlelight: turkey hot dogs, turkey burgers, and veggies.

Saturday night’s dinner by candlelight: turkey hot dogs, turkey burgers, and veggies.

We played games: Life, Scrabble, Symbol Simon.

We played with gymp; made keychains and braids.

We ate by lantern light at night, had hot chocolate each morning to warm up, did dishes at night by flashlight, even went out and watched a movie in the car while sitting in our driveway (charging cell phones at the same time) and slept in the living room every night.

By Sunday morning, we were more than ready for the lights and heat to come on, but we were still doing okay. The kids played in the snow, enjoying the very best part of a good snowstorm: sledding. We thought about the possibility of heading somewhere to shower, to get warmer (without all the steam), but we were really doing okay.

Lots of snow to sled in!

Lots of snow to sled in!

And in the back of my mind, I really didn’t want to leave the whole thing. I wanted my kids to have those memories like I had. In 1978 we had no power for a week. We didn’t leave. Of course, we had a fireplace, but still, a whole week without power. Yikes.

On Sunday afternoon we had just finished showers (warm ones but no hair dryers) and we were in the living room contemplating our next meal, when all of a sudden….the lights came back on. A day earlier than we’d been told by the utility company, and earlier than some other RI residents not quite as lucky.

Just like that.

It was all over.

The kids’ very first question: “Can we still sleep in the living room?”

*Success.*

Below are a few more photos from the weekend.

Enjoy!

Even Bella was chilly on Sunday morning. Outside it was just eight degrees.

Even Bella was chilly on Sunday morning. Outside it was just eight degrees.

Hot chocolate in sleeping bags every morning in the living room.

Hot chocolate in sleeping bags every morning in the living room.

Even under the overhang outside our front door, the snow came right up to the door.

Even under the overhang outside our front door, the snow came right up to the door.

The good thing about losing power in the winter: we just put everything outside to keep it cold. A few things froze, but otherwise we were in good shape and didn't really lose any food.

The good thing about losing power in the winter: we just put everything outside to keep it cold. A few things froze, but otherwise we were in good shape and didn’t really lose any food.

We could not even see the cars in the driveway on Saturday morning.

We could not even see the cars in the driveway on Saturday morning.

Took half the day for Don to uncover one car and snow blow half the driveway.

Took half the day for Don to uncover one car and snow blow half the driveway.

Even Samantha, American Girl, was chilly. Gloves were in order, apparently.

Even Samantha, American Girl, was chilly. Gloves were in order, apparently.

Snowing sideways on Friday night. 75 mph winds.

Caroline got this great shot on her iPod touch: It was snowing sideways on Friday night. 75 mph winds.

The Game of Life played in sleeping bags to stay warm.

The Game of Life played in sleeping bags to stay warm.

Our Sunday night reward for making it through the days without power: Chocolate Fondue!

Our Sunday night reward for making it through the days without power: Chocolate Fondue!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Butternut Squash Soup

19 Dec

ORIGINALLY POSTED NOVEMBER 28, 2011: I’m not feeling great today, with a sore throat and a cough. I keep looking for the next hot thing to drink or eat to soothe my throat and stop my cough. When I was cleaning up my recipes from my Thanksgiving posts, I came across this one, one of our favorite fall recipes and given my sore throat, I figured I’d share it with you. My friend Jody used to live nearby and one day at a play date she served this amazing Butternut Squash Soup. Ever since then, we have made it every year. Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed

4 TBS. Butter

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 fresh clove of garlic

1 Bay Leaf

4 cups chicken broth

1 tsp dry mustard

1 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

Saute onion, celery, clove of garlic and butter until tender, not brown.

Add squash, chicken broth and bay leaf.

Cover and simmer 30-40 minutes until squash is tender. Remove bay leaf.

Puree in blender, pour into stock pot.

Add:

dash of pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon, stir.

Add 1 tsp dry mustard, 1 tsp chopped parsley.

Stir in one cup of milk. Simmer until ready to eat.

This is delicious served with a hot, crusty bread. I will often make a homemade Beer Bread with it, so I’ll post that recipe next. You’ll get a bonus today: two recipes in one day.

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Monday Musings: Moving forward

17 Dec

74082_10200179138544924_1255097896_nToday, Monday December 17 is our first day back to school, although those who survived December 14 in Newtown, Connecticut will not be returning to school for quite some time and never to normalcy, ever.

We are trying to go about business-as-usual over here, reminding our children that their school, as well as the schools in which their parents both work are all safe places, and that tragedies such as these, Columbine and 9/11, are a tragic, scary, yet very rare occurrence in life.

As a family who spends a whole lot of time in all of the schools in our city, and in a neighboring city, this has been an incredibly difficult message to pass along.

However, we’ve had lots of help from fellow school administrators, school psychologists and friends along the way; sending emails, Facebook messages, and the like.

Our own school principal at our elementary school has been helpful in sending out many links over the past few days which give suggestions for how to speak to children about tragic events such as this one.

I know that although we’ve had our initial discussions, that the return to school may bring up other questions, fears, issues. We will be on the lookout, watching for any reactions, answering any questions that arise over the next few days and beyond, since this is not a tragedy which will go away, ever.

I thought I’d pass the links along to you as well, in case you find yourself in need of the answer to a question you thought you’d never have to address with your own kids. Thanks again to our wonderful school principal for being in constant touch with his school community throughout the weekend, for passing these links along to us.

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What now?

15 Dec
The angels are crying right along with us today.

The angels are crying right along with us today.

Yesterday was another one of those days that will be burned into our memories as a horrible, horrible day.

I’m pretty sure I am not the only one who woke up this morning and opened my eyes trying to think for a moment of what that awful thing was that I was trying to remember. What had happened yesterday? Oh yes, then I remembered.

A massacre happened.

Again.

I wondered exactly how to go about my day. On the one hand, you want to stay hunkered down in the safety of your own home with your own babies and never let them go, not even to school on Monday.

But then you think of all the other parents and families  out there who are in the midst of the worst nightmare of their lives who would give anything to take their kids to the most mundane of tasks this weekend.

And you wonder, do you keep going about your normal events of your days, of Christmas for them? For those who cannot ever again?

My friend Paula has a new soup blog, all soup recipes, and her new post for today is perfect. It’s a perfect answer for what we do today.

I hope you’ll read it and I hope you too, will put on a pot of Sandy Hook Soup in honor of all those who are living this nightmare.

 

 

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Family Movie Night & a Recipe: Homemade Hot Chocolate

7 Dec

ORIGINALLY POSTED DECEMBER 9, 2011

It’s a Friday and for us Friday nights are sometimes Family Movie Nights. It’s the end of the week and it’s often a wind-down night as well. We look forward to it.

In the winter, our Family Movie Night movie is usually “The Polar Express” at least once.

I got this book in 1993, before there even *was* a movie!

We have the hardcover version of the Chris VanAllsburg book, and it’s even autographed. We also have the special bell from the story as well as the cd of the story from a gift set that we received a few years back. You can find the book and the movie here on Amazon.com.

There are several bell crafts you could do to go along with “The Polar Express” if you’d like.

Cups, pipe cleaners, stickers and glitter make for an easy jingle bell craft. If you have a real jingle bell, you can put it inside so that the bell actually rings.

You could:

1) Cut out a bell from construction paper and decorate it with glitter or other materials,

and

2) Turn a styrofoam drinking cup upside down, put a pipe cleaner through the top (gold works well) turning it into a bell that way, decorating it on the outside any way you’d like.

During the winter months, Family Movie Night often includes a special treat: Homemade Hot Chocolate. My kids LOVE this recipe and it came from a cookbook I received as a gift from one of my Stampin’ Up! customers several years back. The cookbook is called “Old Fashioned Holiday Recipes.” It was full of many great recipe ideas, but this one has always been a favorite find and perfect for our Family Movie Nights. It would go especially well with the “Krispie” Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe from yesterday!

Two mugs of hot chocolate

Hot off the stove tonight!

Creamy Hot Chocolate
INGREDIENTS

1 (14 ounce) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT Evaporated Milk)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 1/2 cups hot water
Marshmallows, optional

DIRECTIONS

In a large saucepan over medium heat combine Eagle Brand, cocoa, vanilla and salt; mix well.

Slowly stir in water. Heat through, stirring occasionally. Do not boil.

Top with marshmallows (optional.)

Store covered in refrigerator. Makes about 2 quarts.

Hot chocolate can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days. Mix well and reheat before serving.

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First One In Bed

22 Oct

Nighttime means bedtime.

During the summer, bedtime is a free-for all. It doesn’t matter who goes to bed when and there’s usually no reason to get up early in the morning, so everyone can sleep late if they need to.

The school year is a whole different ballgame though.

Recently on Facebook, a lot of my friends have been venting about the tough job of getting kids to bed on time, in a reasonable manner. My kids are older now and our routines are pretty set at this point, but I *so* remember those days.

Setting a bedtime routine is so tough. You have to determine a bedtime, first off and then stick to it. You have to determine what you’re willing to do at bedtime (read a story? Watch an episode of something? Have a tickle fight?) and what you’re not. You have to make sure the kids do their jobs at bedtime (“bathroom, hands and teeth” is our mantra to this day) and still make sure they’re in bed on time.

Sometimes it seems like you need to start at noon in order to get them in bed, on time, with everything done, and staying in bed.

Early on, when we just had Caroline, we’d watch one short video (on a video TAPE) before bed. That worked well for her, as a wind-down routine, and we’d read a story.

With Elizabeth, we found that watching TV wound her up, instead of winding her down.

With Alex, I think most nights we practically threw her in (figuratively, not literally), shut off the light and shut the door, she was so easy.

But there came a time when we had preschoolers and toddlers that getting all three in bed on time just seemed hopeless. We had three kids with three different bedtime routines and we needed to figure out what one thing would work for all of us. It didn’t seem possible.

Until we came up with The First One in Bed challenge.

I don’t even know which one of us came up with it, to be honest.

Let’s just say it was me, for now. 😉

It probably wasn’t though. Don’s always better at creating a challenge.

In a nutshell, here’s how it worked:

Each child had a sticker book (which was a small notebook of some sort, I remember two of them had Strawberry Shortcake on them at one point) and we parents had a big ole’ pile of stickers. All different kinds of stickers worked best, rather than just one kind.

The challenge was to be the First One in Bed. If you were, with all your jobs done, you got three stickers. Second one in bed got two and the last one in bed got one. Or maybe it was four, three and two. I don’t remember, but you get the gist.

You had to be in bed, under the covers in order to pick out your stickers. You had to already have done the whole “bathroom, hands, and teeth” routine.

You had to yell it from your room, really loud: FIRST ONE IN BEEDDDDDD!!!!!!

The others would follow, yelling out that they were in bed too. Ties were allowed. We didn’t want to start a fight or make anyone cry, rather we wanted to get everyone in bed and fast, so we could go out in the living room and sit down for more than three seconds at a clip.

Elizabeth in particular is VERY competitive and loves a challenge. She wanted to win EVERY time. She was known to leap over a smaller child and roll the rest of the way down the hall, in order to get into that bedroom first. (Well not really, but she’d race down that hallway and leap into bed, for sure.)

She was also known to get in there and not be 100% honest about whether her teeth were brushed, and have to get back up, losing her First One in Bed spot.

Their goal was to fill their notebook pages with stickers. Lots and lots of stickers.

This went on for months and months, until somehow we phased it out. I don’t remember how or when, but it was a while ago.

The point is, it worked for us. We were able to create a bedtime routine that worked for all of our kids and let us keep our sanity at the same time. It only cost us a few stickers and a few notebooks.

Hopefully this will help someone else with that particularly challenging time at their house too. I hope so. If not, maybe it’ll spark a different idea that works for you and your child/children at bedtime.

And in our house, to this very day, there are still some occasional nights when we hear someone yell out from their rooms, “FIRST ONE IN BED!!!!” just for the fun of it.

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Breast cancer awareness month and why I do what I do

15 Oct

October is breast cancer awareness month!

Last week I had the privilege of covering a story at our local high school where the student body had come up with several ways to show their support for a teacher recently diagnosed with breast cancer and to raise money for the breast cancer cause itself. It was an amazing show of support. The students had given their all, and it showed. The American Cancer Society will greatly benefit from their donations. I felt blessed to be there as a witness to it. (I have put the link here in case anyone wants to make their own charitable contribution to ACS.)

According to the principal, the teacher is a young woman with a young family.

My worst fear.

Every mother’s worst fear, right?

It was Meredith Israel’s worst fear as well. I don’t know Meredith but about ten days ago my brother sent me the link to her blog post, which the Huffington Post had just posted on their site as well. He doesn’t know Meredith but she’s the friend of a friend and he was so moved by her writing.

When he gave me the heads up as to what the content of her blog was, and that she had a five year old daughter, I couldn’t read it.

But eventually I did.

And I’ll never forget it.

I won’t give you the details because you’ll want to read it yourself.

Or maybe you won’t be able to either.

But as I read it, and as I thought about my own life and family, I thought to myself, “See, this is why I do what I do.”

So often I’m told, “I don’t know how you do it all,” but really it’s not the how, because most days I don’t know how either, but it’s the why.

Clearly I’m an overachiever, and I definitely can’t sit very still for very long. But I wasn’t always this way. It wasn’t until I became a mother and I began having those fears every mother has, the “What if something happens to me,” fears. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t worry about that, even deep down.

Those fears awakened in me the drive that keeps me going every day. It’s the drive and the desire to have no regrets. For as much as humanly possible, I want to have no regrets, looking back. That’s why I do the things I do, whatever that may be, why I give 110% to everything I do, especially if it involves my children.

Now I know that the chances of something happening to me are probably slim, and I also know I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, as they say. But I look at it kind of like life insurance. You pay it all along, hoping you never need it, but when and if you do, you’re so glad you did it all along.

Should something happen to me, looking forward I’d be sad for what I’ll miss in the future, but looking backward, I will have no regrets. I’ll know I did it all, as much as I could, to live each day with no regrets, to spend every moment possible with my children and my husband and my family; and to make the moments count.

Meredith Israel said it well in her recent post; a great piece of advice, definitely words to live by, in my opinion:

“Until then, live each day to the fullest, laugh at the stories from your past, laugh at something at least one time that day and hug those you love.”

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This is what I am the most proud of this week

1 Oct

I’m trying out something new for this school year. We’ll see how it goes!

Well, we’ve been in school exactly one month now. That means at our house, approximately 300 papers have come home from school between the two schools and the three kids.

I say this with slight exaggeration.

Slight.

We get a ton of papers home daily, weekly and monthly and I’m sure we’re not the only family drowning in notices, tests, quizzes, homework, art work and the like, for 180 days a year.

I’ll also tell you…I’m a saver.

Not a hoarder, there’s a difference. I’m a saver, safekeeping, keepsakes.

I’m also, as most of you know, a former teacher, so I have those types of tendencies as well: bulletin boards, displays, things like that.

Put it all together: my dining room is my classroom. I’ve been known to have classroom-style calendars on the walls when my kids were little, sticker charts encouraging good behavior, paper chains counting good deeds or days until something starts or ends, and papers on display; tons and tons of papers.

I also use that space to hang all their crafts and birthday cards. Hallways too.

With so many kids, there’s so many crafts, cards, artwork and good papers to display. It can get overwhelming.

This year, our Summer Timeline is still on the wall. I wanted to take it down but the kids weren’t ready yet. I only just got the second half of the summer’s pictures up on there, so they wanted some additional time to look up on the wall and remember their summer before I take it down to save it. (For a keepsake.)

That meant though, that there wasn’t really a good space to start displaying school work as it started coming home these past few weeks.

In the meantime, we’ve been spending the last six months or so doing some work on our house and I came across some unused items from a Stampin’ Up! class I once taught, as I was cleaning out my office. Those items included some magnetized display boards which can stick to a refrigerator.

BINGO.

I had an idea. I had five or six of those display boards. I had a sharpie marker. I took the marker and on the bottom of the display boards I wrote “This week…I am the most proud of this!” on three of the boards.

I stuck them on my fridge, one above the other. (We only just recently removed all the alphabet magnets from the fridge door, so there was a perfectly empty space there for about five seconds before I re-purposed that space.)

Now, each child can go through the papers they bring home that week, or whenever they bring them home, and choose the item they are the most proud of and stick it in the display until another paper comes home that they are even more proud of. It can be a piece of artwork or a test or a homework page that was hard, or really whatever they want.

When I taught, student portfolios were huge. They were a chance for the students to show what piece of their work meant something to them, without someone choosing for them. Many times the piece you think is important, isn’t and to them another piece has more meaning for a reason you don’t even realize. At the end of the school year, the students got to take their work portfolios home and they’d have a year’s worth of work to show, all pieces that were memorable for them.

So that’s what we’re trying out at my house this year. We’ll see how it goes. I still have the urge to cover my “bulletin boards” aka dining room walls with stickered school work, but for now, I’m trying to refrain. We’ve got a birthday coming up anyway….I’ll be able to fulfill that urge by putting up birthday cards instead.

I’m still saving all the good papers though.

Keepsakes. For later.

Saving. Not hoarding.

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