Tippy Toes and Tantrums

Skating Through January

It's farther into January than I thought. Everything is somehow being balanced, and while I want to credit the calmness of our January schedule, there is so much going on right now, that calling January calm would be wrong. We only have one weekend sport - basketball - and Rocket's games are at 9 a.m., which is early, but still leaves open the weekend. That is probably why January feels calm.

* Watching Rocket progress in basketball has been awesome. This Saturday is his last game, and he'll be sad when it's over. He made his first basket last weekend. He's normally quick to pass the ball away, if he ever gets it, but this time he got the ball in the key and we all screamed, "SHOOT!" He did, the ball hit the top of the rim, and tipped down on the inside, scoring a basket. We had friends visiting with us, and we all went wild when he scored.

* Rocket is a little man. He needed a new helmet for skateboarding as he'd grown out of his last. He was fitted and tried on a few until we found the one that worked. In the car I saw the size: men's small. Sunrise, sunset...

* Skateboarding class is awesome. No one has to be dragged there, unlike piano lessons.

* Rocket is begging for a skateboard ramp. We live on a hill near a blind curve, but he had a solution: since we are doing a remodel, we should add on a room for skate ramps. Like they have at his skate school.

* Later, he asked if there are homes with bowling alleys in them.

* Our remodel is going to disappoint Rocket.

Letting a Sleeping Dog Lie

This photo is for my sister, who acts like I am Michael Vick, and for people who are shocked to find out we have a dog.

This is Maddie, the neurotic pug. I came home the other day to find her sleeping on my sweater, which had fallen from where I'd left it. I rolled my eyes, and even though I wasn't happy with her new bed, I let it go, allowing her to hibernate on. The only thing that will get her up from a deep winter slumber, is the gardener, and he wasn't coming by for four days, so this could be a long stay. Maddie slept for a few hours, and the moment she got up and walked away, the sweater went straight into the hamper. But the point her is that I let her sleep on my clothes, uninterrupted, earning myself a badge in compassion.

Maddie has always been crazy, but now, at nearly 11 and a half, she's old lady crazy, and I'm treating her as such. She barks at the wind, she cannot hear, she's pushy in the kitchen, and she complains through grunts if someone has blocked access to one of her two beds. (Two beds! Living in luxury!)

We met with our architect on Friday, who asked if Kevin and I wanted any special pet considerations in a mudroom as we fine tune our renovation plans. One of us snorted, and the other laughed. I see the mudrooms with dog baths on Pinterest or the built in dog bowl trays on kitchen islands, but that is not where were are as pet owners. We had planned on keeping the carpets until Maddie passed on, but those are going too, because I'm tired of looking at the awful carpets, then at the dog, then at the calender. Hard wood it is. Maddie doesn't care, as long as there is sunlight, two beds, and a gardener to bark at.

Pagoda the Turtle is a different story. Pagoda's needs are simple, except that he needs to tan more than Pauly from Jersey Shore. Finding a home for his aquarium is not so hard, but finding a spot for his aquarium, plus his heat lamp is a burden. When talking about theoretical fire evacuation last night, Rocket said it was sure going to be hard to carry the big aquarium to safety. I told him that we would grab Pagoda and run. Rocket said, "I hope he goes into his shell and waits it out there." Of course, last night as I tried to go to sleep, my last thought was of me standing in the dark, across the street from our burning house, with Kevin, two kids, a senile dog, and a snapping turtle in my hands. I'm knocking on wood to make sure it never comes to this.

Rambling on with Down Feathers at My Back

I've wanted to make some throw pillows since last Spring when our new family room furniture arrived, but the project was low on my list of things that needed to be done. Even though I wanted to create the pillows, every two months or so, I'd consider buying them from Pottery Barn, just to end the pillow war, but my gosh, throw pillows are over priced.

I broke down and bought a Christmas pillow at Target and when I went to pack it away before the end of the year, Kevin groaned. He rolled his eyes when I bought the pillow, but losing it was now sad. As if we were going to keep out a red pillow with a snowman year round. It was time to act. I'd bought two pillow inserts at Ikea a few months along, in a feeble attempt to push the project along, so with only hours left in the year, I made a simple, striped, quilted pillowcase.

Ka-POW 2011!

But it was only one pillow, which became fought over during the next two days, so with one insert left, the ironing board still out, and sewing machine uncovered, I made a second one. The second pillow was mostly an idea of bunting and some guess work, but I love it even more.

My goal was to make the pillows in 2012, and since that's done, I can ride out the rest of the year.

That third pillow is still needed and maybe even a fourth for another spot, plus I do want to make a log cabin pillow, which means I'll be racing to beat the clock in a little under 12 months from now.

I made a point of having some quiet time to plan out some goals for 2012. Normally, I need shorter term goals, but I recently came across a list of goals for 2011 set during a planning meeting with Kevin. It was a meeting that felt like a delinquent student being ordered to see the school counselor to talk about the future, but still, we accomplished every goal, except one, which is being rolled into our remodel, and technically one other was missed, but I have no idea what it means, so maybe we did accomplish it.

With my accomplishment high, I made a new list. A list I've already managed to misplace (this is what I get for using paper from a tiny notepad nabbed from a hotel), but like last year, hopefully when I do find it, much of the stuff is ready to be crossed off. My word for the year is strive. Strive to do better, be better, and achieve my goals (the ones I can remember).

The gym yesterday so full there was only one treadmill open when I arrived. A lot of older people were there, which was a huge boost to my self-esteem because I was going much faster than them (yes, everything is a competition to me. We may be on a treadmill, but we are still racing), but one very little, very old man in a mint green polo shirt had me worried as he was going 1.2 mph while standing at a 45 degree angle. He was holding on the the handles for dear life, but I was so afraid he was going to fall on his face because his feet were so far behind him.

Here's where I was going: my trainer told me a man had a heart attack there the day before, when the gym was packed full of New Years resolution people trying to undue weeks, months, years of neglect in a few days. CPR was performed on the pulse-less man and he was saved, but it was a lesson in prolonged perseverance. Things or situations rarely do a 180 overnight, they are more likely to change over time through work. I've been preaching the benefits of hard work to my kids for some time. Neither buys it - sometimes I don't want to either - but I hope that by plugging away each day, striving to be better, that not only will good things happen, but my kids will learn the same. Because I'm tired of being the guidance counselor calling the eye rolling delinquents into my office for a planning meeting.

My Week of Guilt-Free Indulgence

Sad Snowman, deliberately droopy, as designed by Rocket

No surprise, I was hit with the post-Christmas Ebola. I knew that the race to get everything just right for the holidays would leave me totally drained on Dec. 26, but I didn't expect to have an awful cold and sore throat too. In a small way, it was fine because while I'd rather not have been sick, it forced me to do nothing. I took a nap, I moved from family room to the bedroom and back, and I watched TV, all without guilt, which was great.

By Tuesday, I started to feel better, but my outlook had shifted. Maybe this is the one week out of the year that I could do as close to nothing as possible...without any guilt. A week-long vacation during other times of the year are relaxing, but life is going on like normal all around, keeping up the reminder of what is being missed or what still needs to be done. But this week is different because so many people are off work that a week of eating leftover Christmas cookies, catching up of sewing projects, and indulging in daytime television are all perfectly fine ways to pass the time. I slept in until 9 a.m. yesterday, which is a huge milestone because Kevin was by my side. Neither one of us had to get up to entertain or feed a child. Both kids slept in and then did their own quiet thing - minus the time I thought Rocket was ringing a bell. It turns out, it wasn't Rocket daintily ringing a little silver bell with his pinkie in the air, waiting to be served, but he turned his alarm clock on by accident. (Him, "I turned it to 'no!'" Me under my breath, "Is he dyslexic? It's o-n, not n-o.")

Our Christmas decorations typically stay up until about Jan. 2, but this year, the boxes are out and much is packed away. I'm ready for 2012. The list of books on the side of this blog hasn't been neglected; those are the only books I read this year. So, so sad. I didn't even read one book a month, but I pledge to change that next year. We went to the library tonight, allowing me to get a head start. A little less time on Twitter, and a little more reading actual literature. Dream big.

This week my goal is lofty: the free myself from syndicated sitcoms that I have only just discovered, to set goals for 2012. I like to have a plan, and even more, I like one that involves procrastination. No guilt until Jan. 1, and that's a holiday (Sunday football day), which means Jan. 2 is really the start of my year. That gives me a few more days of playing video games and sleeping in. Tuesday is going to be hell.

UPDATE: I read a book! I purposefully picked the shortest book I grabbed at the library, to increase my chance of success. Within about two hours, the book was read, plus I added a book by my friend Lisa, which is awesome (I read it during winter break in February, but didn't write about it because I am not awesome, even though the book has sat right next to my monitor for 11 months, taunting me and making me feel guilty), leaving 12 books are on my sidebar, averaging one a month, and suddenly I am back in this reading game. Take that, illiteracy!

Cell Phones, Ollies, and Diego

I had the unfortunate experience of having to attend two funerals within a week. Here is what I learned from being surrounded many older people: they have cell phones; they turn up the volume on their cell phones so they can hear the ringer; they do not turn off cell phones or ringers, even in churches; when their cell phones ring in church, they either can't hear their cranked up ring or they believe that if they ignore it, it will end. Two funerals, three cell phones ringing, all belonging to old people. Not one was answered.

In other news, determined by what's on my iPhone:


My kids started skateboard camp. First, it was only Rocket, but when Clover saw his cute new skateboard, she developed a desire to ollie. This is the girl who is still scared of ice skating and bikes over 12 inches high, but we sighed, told her she'd have to stand on the skateboard not lie down, then forked over the money to add her to camp. Giant surprise: she loves it. She's no threat to Tony Hawk, but she's conquered a fear, which is especially awesome considering she is the only girl in a camp full of boys.

Kevin and I spent the day in San Francisco this weekend, walking around the Mission, stopping at Renegade Craft Fair, and loading up on pirate supplies. It was awesome.

Now I am experiencing the joy of listening to a nine year old dissect the intellectual gaps in Go Diego, Go! Clover: This is obvious! Duh! Did they have too little money for special effects? This is horrible! Obviously ice is slippery! Those bobos aren't really sorry, they just said they were sorry. First the blanket was on the llama's neck, then on her back, then on her neck. A llama can't move her own blanket, so how did it move? Are we supposed to believe this is magic? This is weird and stupid. Rocket (to everything said by his sister): Yeah! Oh holiday vacation, you test my patience.