Everyone needs a good stretch sometimes. Maybe not this big a stretch, though…
(c) 2017. All rights reserved.
It’s dribble time!
Cricket started basketball camp today. I’ve been to countless soccer, t-ball, and football practices, and at least that many swimming lessons and soccer, t-ball, football, and basketball games with Miss Tadpole and Bubbles. Basketball camp is a new one, though.
Gotta love it when they ask at the last possible moment. Cricket brought me the sign-up form at 8:00 a.m. this morning; camp started at 9:00 a.m. It’s fifteen minutes from our house to the school, and I was still in bed.
Apparently he’s been getting tips from the older two – Bubbles had me help him with a homework assignment the other night and waited till 9:30 p.m. the night before it was due to get me what I needed to help.
Kids. 😀
Do your kids participate in any extracurriculars?
(c) 2017. All rights reserved.
New
It’s a new year! Hooray!
And also…what? It’s 2017? But…but I thought 1997 was just a few years ago…
1997-me would have had a lot of New Year’s Resolutions. 1997-me had a lot more free time. But still, new years are nothing if not perfect for making a change, and this year I’d like to make a change in my writing. That is, I’d like to do more of it.
This seems like the perfect place to start.
My poor blog has been rather neglected the last few months, and that needs to change. Once upon a time, I undertook a challenge to post a picture a day for a year. I had a lot of fun with it, even if there were a few times where I posted several days’ worth of pictures all at once. Life happens, you know?
This year, instead of posting a picture a day, I’m going to try to post something every day. Some days, a picture. Some days, a poem. Some days, maybe several days’ worth of things all at once. Because life happens, you know?
More writing isn’t the only change I’ll be making this year – I’m going back to school in the fall – but I hope it’s one that will yield positive results. 2016 was supposed to be a year full of awesome, and instead it was mostly a year full of suck. I’m tired of feeling defeated. It’s time to try feeling hope.
Are you with me?
(c) 2017. All rights reserved.
Another stressed-out Christmas carol
So last year about this time, I was doing the Writing 101 challenge and the prompt was fallacy. I wrote a stressed-out-Mom version of “Jingle Bells,” which pretty accurately reflected my state of mind for the duration of the holiday season last year.
Actually, it’s a pretty accurate reflection of my state of mind right now, too.
In a fit of inspiration this morning, I heard the words to another stressed-out-Mom carol, and the following was born:
It’s the Most Burdensome Time of the Year
It’s the most burdensome time of the year!
With the holiday shopping
And temperatures dropping, we’re living in fear,
It’s the most burdensome time of the year.
It’s the stress-stressfullest season of all.
With the social engagements and concert arrangements
I just want to bawl!
It’s the stress-stressfullest season of all…
Oh, the kitchen is smokin’
And my budget’s broken,
I think I’m becoming a loon.
Will the pipes keep on freezing,
The kids keep on sneezing,
Or will they be throwing up soon?
It’s the most burdensome time of the year!
The noise is astonishing,
With carols admonishing be of good cheer,
It’s the most burdensome time of the year!
Oh, the kitchen is smokin’
And my budget’s broken,
I think I’m becoming a loon.
Will the pipes keep on freezing,
The kids keep on sneezing,
Or will they be throwing up soon?
It’s the most burdensome time of the year!
The noise is astonishing,
With carols admonishing be of good cheer,
It’s the most burdensome time,
Yes, the most burdensome time,
Oh, the most burdensome time
Of the year!
I had quite a lot of fun with this, and I know several others who like to put their own take on Christmas carols around this time of year. I’m thinking about making it an annual tradition!
What about you – are you ready for Christmas? What have you got planned?
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
You’re only fourteen once
It’s Miss Tadpole’s birthday today, and she is fourteen. It’s hard to believe that – it seems like just yesterday when we met.
Seymour and I had decided to take the kids bowling. We thought introductions would be less pressure that way; they arrived first, and Bubbles and I arrived a few minutes later. They invited us to bowl with them and we accepted. We had a blast together, and afterward, she invited us to have supper with them.
Completely her idea.
I’ve been thinking more and more about those early days lately. They seem so long ago, and yet…not. I swear it was just yesterday that she walked up to me, tugged on my shirt, and said, “My trouble name is Tadpole Mary Kauffman.”*
And if I’d have smiled any bigger, I think my face would have broken.
So have a happy birthday, Miss Tadpole – you’re only fourteen once. Before you – and we – know it, you’ll be fourteen no longer.
*name changed to protect the silly
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
Frozen to the Core
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
A storm rages outside my window. It’s dark, and the freezing mix makes it hard to see. Amy sounds tinny, and far away, and not at all the way I remember her in this song. In my memory, she is warm and welcoming, close enough to touch yet larger than life.
Now, though, she is tiny. A tiny woman singing a tiny song through a tin can phone.
I’m alone, and lonely, and the darkness doesn’t help.
It’s the hap-happiest season of all…
The darkness wraps itself around me, but it does nothing to ward off the chill, cannot stop it from settling in my bones, from freezing my marrow. I freeze all the way to my core, and not even my expensive down coat with its heat-reflecting interior can warm me.
I’m alone, and lonely, and the darkness doesn’t help.
It’s the most wonderful time…
I crank the heater up to eleven and then, because I can’t hear her over the road noise and the heater, I turn Amy up, too. Only it’s not Amy singing anymore, it’s Josh, and Bing, and their once-silken voices now sound raspy and grating, so I turn the radio back down. The blast of hot air from my car’s dashboard vents sears my eyes and chaps my skin, but it can’t warm my soul, and the bright Christmas tunes can’t dispel the gloom.
I’m alone, and lonely, and the darkness doesn’t help.
Oh, the most wonderful time…of the year!
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
I’m too *fill in the blank* for this!
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I posted my stressed-out-Mom version of “Jingle Bells,” but it’s true. It’s that time of year again, and just like this time last year, I’m feeling the blues. The holiday stress began in earnest with Thanksgiving and trying to squeeze in trips to family, trips to friends, and trips to the store on Black Friday (not for the deals, but because we actually needed things) without going bonkers. This week I’ve got two Christmas concerts, church for the kids, a basketball game, a house to decorate, family pictures to take, and 20 dozen cookies to bake before Saturday.
It’s gonna be a crazy…
Today I’m thankful for…
…in no particular order:
- A functional washer and dryer.
- All the caffeine.
- Good health.
- The best husband in the history of marriage.
- Cherry pie.
- My friends and family around the world.
- Wonderful writing groups.
- A job that pays the bills.
- The car that gets me there (and everywhere else).
- Bad jokes.
- The small load setting on my new washer, because sometimes you just don’t have enough socks to do a large load of whites.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I hope your day was full of family, food, and fun!
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
Today I’m thankful for…
…my family! I have a pretty great one, after all:
How can you not love those faces?
What are you thankful for on this dreary Wednesday afternoon?
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
Today I’m thankful for…
It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is in just a couple of days. Surely it was only New Year’s last week?
At any rate, I’d like to take the rest of the week to write about things I am thankful for, and today, I’m thankful for friends, both old and new. I’m lucky enough to have a few old friends, people I’ve known since I was Thumper’s age (which is to say, five), people who’ve seen me through many a rough patch in life as well as many a happy day. Friends like them don’t come around often, and while it’s crazy – not to mention slightly scary – to think that we’ve been friends for almost thirty years, I’m beyond glad to know that some friendships can survive just about anything that life throws our way.
I’m also thankful for Facebook and MySpace (the old version – may it rest in peace) for allowing me to reconnect with old friends I’ve lost track of over the years. If not for MySpace, I’m not sure I’d have reconnected with one old friend so soon and if not for Facebook, there are quite a few dear friends who would have likely remained confined to memories. I reconnected with one such friend over the weekend, and I am so excited to meet up with her Friday and catch up in person. Yay! 😀
I’m also thankful for blogging and social media in general for allowing me to make so many new friends, friends I would never have met without the internet. The Alliance of Worldbuilders, the Ink Slingers’ League, and the Cheer Peppers are just some of the friends I’m lucky to have made in the last several years, and there are many more out there.
What about you – what are you thankful for?
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
Suddenly they all died. The end. 