Snoodlings

I’ve been gathering our camping supplies.

I don’t get camping. I get spending time outside in the beautiful world that God created. I understand why people enjoy hiking and being in nature. But I don’t get sleeping on the cold, hard ground when I have a soft, comfortable bed with fluffy pillows in my house that has a thermostat to keep the temperature set to “cozy” twenty-four hours a day.

So guess who’s going camping this weekend?

Not RV camping with beds and mini-kitchens. I’m talking old school camping. With tents. No kitchens. A community bathroom that’s a good hike away from our campsite. For two nights in a row I will sleep in a sleeping bag in a tent on the hard-packed earth. With a bunch of Cub Scouts. And temperatures in the 40s.

I love being a girl, but I’m no diva. I’m not afraid of dirt. I love to try new things. I’m excited about the daytime activities we have planned and I’m looking forward to s’mores and sing-a-longs around the campfire. But no one has been able to sufficiently explain to me what we will gain from sleeping outside. Why can’t we get there early and stay late? What will we gain from lying in the dark in the cold listening to each other snore?

I went to South Africa the summer before my senior year of college. We had planned to spend a few days at a feeding station in the middle of nowhere where there was no electricity or running water. Ultimately, we had to cancel that part of our trip because rebel fighting had moved to close to the border near where we were to be, and I was crushed. I had really been looking forward to the whole experience. I didn’t mind roughing it for a purpose.

But someone please explain to me what we are accomplishing by sleeping in the dirt when we have beds at home?!

I am excited about cooking over an open fire. (Yes, this might be an appropriate place to wonder why I struggle with sleeping outside because I have a bed yet I’m eager to cook outside when I have a stove. Don’t confuse me with logic.) I’ve been looking for good campfire recipes on the Internet. I’ve been re-reading some of Jana’s posts about cooking at camp. She’s a friend of my friend Meredith and apparently her family is into the whole camping thing. I’m going to drive over to Bass Pro Shop to see if I can find one of the pie irons that she uses in a lot of recipes. And a heated sleeping bag. And a temperature-controlled tent. Or a blow-up cabin.

Honestly, I’m looking forward to sharing this camping experience with my family, I really am. I’m sure laughs will be had and memories will be made. And sleep will be lost. And new blog fodder will probably be created. It’s a win-win for everyone.

So, friends, are any of you avid campers? Any tips for this novice? Recipes we could try? Ideas on how you get all the food out there and keep it from giving us all botulism? Any and all advice is welcome here.

I’m off to look for that blow-up cabin. Wish me luck!

from www.amazon.com

It’s Spirit Week at my kids’ school aka Stretch Mom’s Stylist Skills Way Too Early in the Morning Week. Today is Wacky Wednesday. It takes longer to put together an outfit that looks like absolutely no thought went into planning it than one might think. I’m not sure why wearing mismatched socks, inside out and backwards clothes, and crazy hairstyles inspires school spirit, but it was deemed appropriate for today on the Spirit Week instruction sheet the kids brought home last Friday and we try to be team players around here.

Speaking of team players, on the way to school my son anxiously exclaimed, “Oh, no!!” and accompanied his outburst with a quick palm thrust to his head. This usually is his sign for “I forgot something” so I started looking around the car to see what we’d left at home. Band is on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I knew we didn’t need his trombone. He had his backpack and I’d seen him frantically stuff his papers into it on the way out the door (never mind that our family way is to have our backpacks ready to go the night before). I’d signed all permission slips pending for the week so I asked him, “What is it?” to which he responded, “Never mind.” This is usually his sign for “I’ve forgotten to tell you something that I don’t want to mention now because you’re probably going to be irritated and gripe at me.” Eventually after a couple of minutes of coaxing, he informed me that he’d forgotten about basketball the day before.

I did, in fact, find this news irritating and preceded to gripe because I filled out the paperwork for him to play basketball at his school the first week of school. I added my name to the email list of parents who wanted to be informed when basketball began. I had discussed with my son the importance of writing announcements and assignments in his school-required planner because “now you’re a fifth grader and people are going to expect you to begin taking responsibility for your information.” But somehow we’ve missed the start of basketball.

When we arrived at the school, I accompanied the kids to the main office (Did I mention we were late today? Our first tardy of the year, so it’s appropriate that it happened on Wacky Wednesday, I guess.) to check them in to school and I asked the secretaries if they had any more information about the start of basketball. They did not. They made a few phone calls and although we didn’t get all of the information, we found out practices/clinic/try-outs/whatever-is-going-on-with-the-basketball-in-the-gym started Monday afternoon. Sigh.

I took a big, cleansing breath, hugged my son to my side, and assured him that all was well. I sent him off to begin his school day secure in his mother’s love and confident in his ability to do better next time.

No, I didn’t. I left in a huff. I don’t think I even told him goodbye.

At least I hadn’t blown it with my two youngest kids. Except that I did. We decided to spike my youngest son’s hair which he thought was a great idea,right up until after I’d smeared hair wax all through his hair to make it stand on end. At which point he decided he didn’t want to have spiked hair. It’s hard to undo hair gel without washing hair which we didn’t have time to do. So I fussed and he whined and the mood for my morning with him was set. I gnawed on my daughter’s goodwill by reminding her she was the one who always made us late and grilling her on why she hadn’t planned her outfit the night before like I’ve told her over and over and over to do. So as they were walking down the hall to their classrooms, tardy slips clutched in their little hands, they weren’t whistling “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.”

Neither was I as I stomped to my minivan and drove back home with my fists and jaw clenched.

Crud. I blew that one.

It’s hard teaching little people how to become responsible adults. It’s hard knowing when to step in and rescue and when to let them flounder on their own. It’s hard knowing that I haven’t heeded my own advice to “just breathe.”  It’s hard not to become overwhelmed with deadlines and responsibilities and obligations. It’s hard to remember what’s most important during weeks when every day feels like Wacky Wednesday.

We are entering the busy season. Life keeps speeding up with more and more things added to our To Do lists and it won’t slow down until after the holidays. I don’t want to look back in January and realize that I missed my favorite time of year because I was too wrapped up in all the “stuff.”

So let’s make a pact. We might not be able to keep the Wednesdays from being Wacky, but we don’t have to be whacked by them! Let’s share our wisdom with one another and talk about what we do to make sure that the main thing stays the main thing in our lives. Do you have any tidbits to help manage the scheduling craziness that happens this time of year? Any time-saving recipes? Decorating ideas to make our holiday nests cozy? Seen any good holiday ideas on Pinterest lately that we might have missed? Good gift ideas to keep us from spending too much money this holiday season? Any family traditions we might want to adopt? If you can put aside my earlier mistakes of the day, I have a few ideas to share. If you have any ideas, send them to me at snoodlings@live.com.  I’ll start posting our tips and ideas on Wednesdays.

In the meantime…

Happy Wacky Wednesday!

I had a great weekend in Arkansas. I had planned to spend  a few posts this weeks telling some stories about the weekend, just liked I’d planned to leave Arkansas bright and early Sunday morning, pick up the kids and my mom at her house in Louisiana, and drive back home. But didn’t someone somewhere once say that life’s what happens when you’re making other plans? I did leave Arkansas bright and early Sunday morning and drove to Louisiana, but instead of driving to my mom’s house, I drove to the hospital, where my mom had been admitted.

She’s been having some health problems for awhile now, and Saturday she started having some symptoms that looked a lot like a stroke. She went to the emergency room where the doctors admitted her to the hospital and proceeded to administer every test they had to administer. I even think they were making some up on the spot. She was discharged Tuesday and although we don’t know a whole lot more than we did before she was there, we were able to rule out a lot of bad and scary things, including stroke.

Remember when I told you a few weeks ago that as you get older every body part gets its own doctor? Well, I left my mom with strict orders and new boundaries and waiting for lab results and appointments with more new doctors. As soon as we can get a few appointments taken care of in Louisiana, we’re hoping to have her come stay with us for a little while.

In the meantime, I got home yesterday evening and hit the ground running with Cub Scouts, permission slips, party RSVPs and laundry. I am so thankful for a husband who can fill in the gaps and understood and supported my need to be with my mom until things leveled out a little. I am grateful for kids who have become experts at “going with the flow.” I am still touched by Louisiana friends who act like family and have mastered the act of “showing up.”

We’ll talk about Arkansas later, but today I have some catching up to do around the house. I hope your week is going even better than you planned, because that’s sometimes when the best of life happens!

Happy Thursday!

A couple of weeks ago I had a doctor’s appointment. In the course of the doctor’s interview, he asked me if I was experiencing any stress in my life. And I laughed.

Who isn’t experiencing a little stress? Life is stressful. And we’re all busy. If you’re breathing and walking around on the face of this earth, chances are you’re busy and you’re experiencing a little bit of stress.

I’m not sure when our culture decided to wear our busyness and stress as medals of honor. I get tired of the competition to try to appear the busiest. It’s certainly nothing to be particularly proud about, yet we somehow equate the lack of blank space on the blocks of our calendar with success. Maybe we think that in order to justify the space we’re occupying on the planet we have to keep moving at all times….no matter the cost.

I didn’t realize how much tension I was holding in my body until the other day. I was sitting at the computer answering some emails that I should have responded to a couple of weeks ago when I realized that my shoulders were somewhere just below my earlobes. I noticed that my teeth were sore because my jaw was clenched. The TV was off, I wasn’t playing any music, the kids were at school, and I was the only person in the house. I realized that it had been way too long since I’d listened to silence. In the quiet of that moment, I took a deep breath, unclenched my jaw, dropped my shoulders and closed my eyes. I took a minute to just be. To just breathe.

I’m taking a few more minutes to breathe and laugh and remember this weekend. My twentieth (!!) college reunion is this weekend in Arkansas. This is not a convenient time to be away. My To Do lists have sub-lists, the kids will have to miss a day of school, I’m leaving a lot of things undone…..and I’m perfectly okay with that. I have my husband’s blessing and a reserved hotel room with my best friend. All my lists and chores will be waiting when I get back, but I think some time away will be do this body good.

Maybe you can’t get away this weekend, but you can take a few minutes to just be still and quiet. Maybe you, too, need to remind yourself to just breathe.

The blog will be “just breathing” (and barely at that) until I get back, hopefully refreshed and ready to tackle my lists. I’ll see you then!

Have a great weekend!

We had a great family weekend. Full, but fun. I won’t belabor all the details, but probably the highlight of our time was probably our family bike ride yesterday afternoon.

To understand the full significance of this event you need to have a little background information. Up until a couple of weeks ago, neither of my seven-almost-eight-year olds could ride a bike without training wheels. Up until very recently (as in Saturday), one of my seven-almost-eight year olds didn’t know how to tie lace-up shoes. I don’t know if it’s my “advanced maternal age,” which is how my obstetrician classified me the last time I was pregnant (which considering the hormone factory that is a gestating mother of multiples was either a courageous or stupid thing to do), the fact that these two were not born first, or just that I tend towards Type B tendencies, but I don’t stress about milestones the way a few of my friends do. I think it has a lot to do with some wise counsel Carpool Queen gave me when my oldest seemed to be a little slow on the uptake with the whole potty training skill set.  She sagely said, “Amy, I doubt he’ll be wearing a Pull-Up to his senior prom. He’ll be ready when he’s ready.” And, as usual, she was right. He is in fifth grade and wears boxer, thank you very much. Although I doubt he’d be thrilled that I shared that information with the rest of you. Let’s just keep it ourselves, shall we?

So, anyway, the fact that one of my kids didn’t know how to tie shoes and two of them couldn’t ride a two-wheeled bike was something I thought about but not something that caused me to lose sleep.  Last weekend, my next-door neighbor taught my youngest two to ride by putting them on smaller bikes they could balance with both feet on the ground. Literally, within minutes, both kids were riding and my son was even attempting some Evel Knievel moves. So, this weekend we put them on their big bikes and they’re now training for the Tour de France. The shoe tying happened even more quickly. We bought a brand new pair of lace-up tennis shoes a couple of weeks ago that have been sitting in the box because someone didn’t want to learn to tie because it was “just too hard.” Dad took charge of the tutorial on Saturday evening and now “has velcro” is no longer the starting requirement for any future shoe selection.

Yesterday we decided to go for a quick bike ride around the neighborhood just because we could. One of my babies looked over at us as we pedaled down the street and said, “This is a big day for our family. We can all ride bikes and we can all tie our shoes.”

It was a big day indeed.

**This is where I would have inserted the picture my neighbor took of the whole fam on bikes if we could find the connector thingy that attaches Kelly’s phone to the computer. You would have loved it.***

I haven’t had a chance to blog much this week so I’m condensing the posts I would have written into little snippets for you to read today.

1. FEELING LIKE A WICKED DISNEY STEPMOM

from www.rottentomatoes.com

Kelly has been out of town a lot the last couple of weeks so I’ve been the sole disciplinarian. We’ve had a pretty good week, but for some reason we had some “issues” last night that led to me posting these status updates on Facebook and Twitter:

Reduced one child to tears because I wouldn’t let them ride bikes because they hadn’t done what I asked them to do.

Another child is crying because I won’t let her go to a drop-off, 5-hour party for a school friend whose family I’ve never met or talked to (she’s 7!).

So even though I know I’m making wise parenting choices, I feel like a Disney stepmother.

Can I get a witness? Like my friend Gretchen always says, “Parenting is NOT for sissies!” But Daddy gets home in a few hours so this “Bad Cop” will have backup. I’m so thankful for a husband who takes his parenting job just as seriously as he takes the one they pay him to do. I’m also thankful for mom friends who text, Tweet, post on my Facebook wall, and call me to express encouragement and mom solidarity support. I can’t imagine any people I’d rather be doing life with than you all.

2. BETSY ROSS WAS THE BOMB DIGGITY

www.betsyrosspizza.com

Who knew she made pizza, too?!

I had about eighteen Cub Scout badges that needed to be sewn onto uniforms. (Did I mention that Kelly and I are co-leading a Webelos group this year? I definitely didn’t see that one coming. By-the-bye, we’re selling popcorn. You can order online and have it shipped to your house! Let me know if you’re interested. My boys would rise and call you blessed.) Around here it costs $3 per patch to have it done by someone who actually knows how to sew. Eventually, I plan to buy my own sewing machine and have someone teach my daughter and I how to use it. She is fascinated with people who know how to sew, I guess since her mother has been asked not to even sew on buttons anymore after her last attempt resulted in a thread snarl so large that the button could no longer fit through the buttonhole. Her mother also has the rare ability to iron wrinkles into clothes, so she tends to avoid all things fabric-related. But my across-the-street friend assured me that she could at least teach me how to hand sew the patches. I walked over for a quick tutorial and then after the kids were in bed, I sat on the couch and sewed while I watched some of the new fall shows I’d recorded on the DVR…..until 2 a.m.  Speedy I am not. I have a new respect for Betsy Ross.  But I actually enjoyed the process! In fact, I want to learn some sort of mindless needle craft that I can do this fall. I used to love to latch hook, but I’ve never found a use for my finished products. Let’s face it: craft manufacturers are not churning out super cute latch hook patterns and  I’m long past the unicorn and rainbow stage of life. Anyone have any good ideas of an EASY handcraft to try?

3.  SOUP’S ON…..AS SOON AS I FIND A GOOD RECIPE!

from www.brooklynflea.com (which sounds like a weird place to purchase soup)

We’re supposed to get some fall-like temperatures this weekend and I’m excited. The change in the air makes me want to pull out all my fall decorations and make some soup. I was thinking one of the vegetable variety. Do any of you have the best vegetable soup recipe ever that you’d be willing to share? I’d reciprocate with a really good chili recipe that I tried last week.  I’m also jonesing to pull out some of my pumpkin recipes. ‘Tis the season! Although I’ve heard rumors that the pumpkin crop was bad again this year. I hope we don’t have a repeat of the Great Pumpkin Crisis of 2009 and part of 2010! Those were dark and scary times that I’d soon as not repeat.

4.  HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW. I cut off all my hair this week. Well, that sounds scarier than it actually was. I didn’t cut my hair, I paid a trained professional to do it. I’d been trying to grow it out, but I had so much happening on the top of my head that the stylist and I agreed that the easiest thing to do might be to cut it all off and start from an even base. It looked like I had four or five different cuts going on simultaneously. I had one thing happening with the bangs with some weird mullet-looking thing in the back with some other funky wonkiness on the sides. So now it’s chin length and we’ll just see what happens from there.

I’m telling you about my haircut because I noticed something funny. I have never made a major hair decision when I was in a place of emotional calm or when it was just an everyday day. The day my family dog died, I died my hair red. When I was pregnant with my first child and preparing to move further from my family than I’d ever lived, I cut off all my hair. I did that again when we moved to Boston. Sad about a college breakup? I had my hair permed and layered, which by the way should never be attempted even during a time of emotional stability. This week? Well, it’s been a good week, but it’s had more than it’s fair share of unexpected news, changes in plans and lots of mental stuff, good and bad, that I have to eventually sort and process. So I cut off all my hair. I figure it costs about the same as a counseling appointment and at least I look different on the outside when I leave. Does anyone else do this or am I alone in my crazy ways?

5. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SISTER/COUSIN/FRIEND

It’s Albany’s birthday. I could send you to her  work page  to see a picture of her looking resplendent in her gorgeousness. Or I could direct you to this post I wrote about one of our family secrets. But instead I think I’ll show you one of the pictures that I’ve saved to keep us both humble:

We had decided to make “green” velvet cake. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was Saint Patrick’s Day. It doesn’t matter. It was as disgusting as it looks.

I love and miss you, Albany, and I hope you get to do something today especially for you. Wish I were there to be part of the party!

HAPPY WEEKEND, EVERYONE!!

My daughter’s BFF is having a birthday today. We wish we were there to celebrate with her, but since we aren’t, we decided to post a video message instead. You may not even know sweet Ruby Jane, but if you have or have ever had a BFF of your own, I think you’ll like this video.