Fall Ball

So it turns out when you get really irritated by lack of communication and lack of schedule, you end up volunteering/being-stared-at-when-the-group-is-asked-for-a-volunteer for team mom. So I am now team mom for Spencer’s fall baseball team. I actually secretly love it, because I have a tendency to badger for correct information and schedules and want updates for everything, so now I have a focus (badger the coach) and can make sure the information *I* wanted and felt we needed is disseminated to the parents. Long emails, text reminders ... I don't know if everyone appreciates them, but so help me, word is going to get out.

Fall ball is way lower key than spring, and I find myself missing the rigor and practice (as much as I complained! I know that I complained!) because it was so good for S. He so loves playing and practicing and being among like-minded kids. This weekend he told me how much he misses his old team. It’s not the he doesn’t like the new team, it’s just that it’s completely different. The coach is more laid back, most of the kids are new – either from the tee ball teams or new to baseball all together – and he just thrives on more structure. I like the coach fine (he’s a dad from last season’s team and works for the ball park) but I hear the old coach from across the park and miss it.

The good thing about this, though, is that bc Spencer is more experienced, he gets to play infield (for practices so far) as opposed to when he was one of the less experienced and spent all his time in right field. He played right field, second base and third base this last practice and he did so well.

So we’ll keep going, and Spencer will hopefully keep getting better and will be ready for Spring Ball when it starts. 

What 4 months of reading Yields (What I read: May-August)

May

reread:

2. The Prince - Kiera Cass

new:

32. The Rosie Project - Graeme C. Simsion - ebook expired before I finished

33. The House of Silk - Anthony Horowitz audio, abandoned. Sherlock Holmes too much intro

34. Halfway to the Grave - Jeaniene Frost - awful, abandoned, audiobook

35. Lock and Key - Sarah Dessen

36. The Guard - Kiera Cass

37. The Queen - Kiera Cass

38. The Ruby Circle - Richelle Mead

39. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

40. Burn for Burn - Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

41. The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin abandoned, unfortunate circumstance of not enjoying self-help or non-fiction.

42. What Happened to Goodbye - Sarah Dessen

43. That Summer - Sarah Dessen

June 

New:

44. These Broken Stars - Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

45. Scene of the Climb - Kate Dyer-Seeley

46. Etiquette & Espionage - Gail Carringer

47. Curtsies & Conspiracies - Gail Carringer

48. Waistcoats & Weaponry - Gail Carringer

49. Before I Go to Sleep - S.J. Watson

50. Saint Anything - Sarah Dessen

51. Eyes on You - Kate White

52. Trial and Temptation - Ruby Lionsdrake

53. The Assassin's Salvation - Ruby Lionsdrake

54. The Ruins of Karzelek - Ruby Lionsdrake

55. The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater

56. Soulless - Gail Carriger

57. Changeless - Gail Carriger

58. Blameless - Gail Carriger

59. Atlantia - Ally Condie

60. Heartless - Gail Carriger

61. Timeless - Gail Carriger

The Rosie Project - Graeme C. Simsion (finish from May)

62. The Heir - Keira Cass

63. Prudence - Gail Carriger

64. The Truth About Forever - Sarah Dessen audio

65. Someone Like You - Sarah Dessen audio

July

new:

66. Big Girl Panties - Stephanie Evanovich

67. The Sweet Spot - Stephanie Evanovich

68. Red Rising - Pierce Brown

69. Golden Son - Piece Brown

70. Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

71. Still Life - Louise Penny audio

72. The Witch of Painted Sorrows - M.J. Rose - abandoned audiobook halfway through, terrible.

73. Seige and Storm - Leigh Barduga

74. Ruin and Rising - Leigh Barduga

75. Moon & More - Sara Dessen

76. Storm Siren - Mary Weber

77. The Kiss of Deception - Mary E. Pearson audio

78. A Fatal Grace - Louise Penny audio

August

new

79. Throne of Glass - Sarah J Maas

80. Scarlett - A C Gaughen

81. Lady Thief - A C Gaughen

82. Lion Heart - A C Gaughen

83. As You Wish - Cary Elwes audio

84. Yes Please - Amy Poehler

85. The Boy Who Could See Demons - Carolyn Jess-Cooke

86. The Boy who Drew Monsters - Keith Donohue

87. Diplomats and Fugitives - Lindsay Buroker

88. The Stories I Only Tell My Friends - Rob Lowe audio

89. The Heart of Betrayal - Mary E. Pearson audio

90. The Blade's Memory - Lindsay Buroker

91. Warrior Mage - Lindsay Buroker

92. Life Drawing - Robin Black

93. Crown of Midnight - Sarah J Maas

94. Heir of Fire - Sarah J Maas

95. The Cruelest Month - Louise Penny

96. The King's Guard - Rae Carson

97. The Shattered Mountain - Rae Carson

What's with all the clutter?

So I wouldn’t say I necessarily buy into any particular trend of getting rid of clutter (cough-KonMari-cough) but also I don’t have the brain power to care about reading those books and having some sort of aha! Moment. You do? Excellent. I mostly glean what I know off my friends who do, and I figure the basics of all the methods is “you don’t need the majority of what you have. Keep what you actually use/like/”brings you joy” and get rid of the rest.” I find that what inspires me to get rid of things is when Ashley blogs about decluttering and I think “hey, I should empty out [pretty much anything]”. A couple months ago it was my nightstand. C came in and said “we should send a picture of this to IKEA to show them how much this thing can hold. It’s impressive.” 

Last month it was the spice cabinet (which I didn’t get rid of a lot because I do a lot of cooking, but I did a lot of organizing, which felt good). 

I also got some bins for the pantry for snacks for the kids because I have never been good at handing off the reins to them to get their own snacks. That felt good. Two days ago this was my project:

  

We have this little antique desk and we never clean it out. Even when we’ve moved, we just haul the whole thing from one place to another. I didn’t take a before photo, but this is all the stuff I took out of it. Part of my decluttering is just acknowledging that we have a lot of crap that has built up and the easiest way for my sanity is to get rid of it all and start anew. 

So I got rid of this box of crayons and other writing implements which were in every drawer and everywhere, and bought one new large box of crayons. I saved one set of colored pencils, one set of markers an a handful of pencils that I confirmed sharpened well and then I donated everything else to a friend’s church for the kids. I now have one drawer of batteries (we go through a lot). I have the coloring implements on the desktop so they stay clean instead of a jumbled mess. Otherwise – empty.

It’s lovely.

Future projects:

-          the linen closet. I do this all the time and it’s a disaster two weeks later. I need to be ruthless.

-          The office closet – we haven’t opened this closet in seven years. It’s … not good.

-          A good scrubbing of the refrigerator. I am the only one who cleans it out and I don’t usually give myself time to clean it well. There are a lot of jars of sauces that need to be trashed.

-          Under the bathroom sinks. It’s … I don’t need most of that crap.

-          The pots/pans/Tupperware. I ordered a new set of Tupperware and I’m getting rid of all the old stuff. All. Gone.

-          The box of school papers from S’s first grade year and Henry’s VPK. I generally keep everything for the year and then at the end sort it and pick a few items and the rest of it goes in the recycling. A new school year means I need to get rid of the last year’s stuff. Also, I probably need two boxes now. Ugh.

I think that’s a good start. I was pretty ruthless with the kids’ toys before Christmas this last year and between that and the post-Christmas redo of their room I got rid of a LOT of stuff. Unfortunately it will probably need to be done again before Christmas this year.

First day

The first day of school was yesterday. H had been dreading this day for years. I remember when Spencer happily started school, we talked to Henry about how exciting it would be that he would be next … and he cried. This refrain of tears has been known well to us and this last year has had my stomach tied up in knots while I worried about how he’d take it.

He did get better recently with his reaction. Small tears, a heartbreaking tiny voice saying he didn’t want to go, but no clinging and outright sobs. He went to VPK over the summer and that first few fraught days of mild hysteria, he genuinely enjoyed being there. He never wanted to go, but he was resigned to it and babbled happily when I picked him up about his day.

I didn’t get many pictures. Here are the two, actually. 

Spencer went off with C excited for second grade and I brought Henry to his class, which we had been to the week before. He had met his teacher then and she knew of his shyness and that he was not good with change. I tried to unpack his supplies and get him comfortable but he just kept crying into his sleeve and I had to leave. For his sake, I had to leave. I didn’t have time to feel any sadness about my baby starting kindergarten. I just worried all day until I could pick them up and see what the day held.

And it was an excellent day for both.

Hello, is it me you’re looking for?

In the last few weeks I’ve realized how much I’ve missed this space. I’ve gotten more into twitter after being post-blowup jaded and sensitive around the beginning of the year. I’ve gotten more into my corner of the internet which is populated with such amazing people (albeit some slightly different from my previous corner). Things happen and I think, “I should blog about that!” but then I also think, “crap, that means I would have to resurrect the thing. Should I touch on everything that has happened this year?”

  

So I’m back. But no, I’m not going to touch on everything that’s happened. I may ultimately blog about this that happened or that. Nothing much has changed in my life, we just keep on keepin’ on. Family is good, friends are good. Work is good. I got Francine:

Who loves my husband best of all.

Hiatus

I've started and stopped a bunch of times trying to get posts up here, and I think that for now I'm just not in that place. Things are well, and you can find me on twitter and instagram and facebook (just comment if you need my user name) and I'd love to keep up but I just can't keep up here right now. I'm at peace with that, and I'll be back. Just not right now.

Much love.

Who needs a good Friday meme?

I meant to do this one earlier this week (I got via mamabub) but then there was work and life and tacos and it didn’t get done. You’re heartbroken, right? So today. What’s with today, today?  Let’s do this thing.

What we’re eating this week: I stuck pretty well to the meal plan this week until yesterday. We had cod with a tomato miso sauce over farro (I always forget how much I love farro until I’m eating it and man, that stuff is THE stuff), spinach feta chicken sausage with polenta cakes and green beans, a dinner w friends (she made meatloaf and garlic red potatoes and homemade rolls and I supplied a Trader Joe’s lemon tart), and by Thursday I was on an “everything annoys the crap out of me” kick so we went for $2 tacos and $4 wine and I was a happy kitten. Tonight I’m doing a “low country shrimp boil” but my kids will only eat the shrimp so I’ll throw a couple potatoes in for C and I and call it a day.

What I’m reminiscing about: Today on Timehop it reminded me that exactly a year ago was when C and I went to NYC and I spent most of a day with Sarah and a late night dinner with her lovely husband.

What I’m loving: Coffee. Lots and lots and lots of coffee. Not even as an “I’m so tired, give me all the coffee” way but more in a perky “hey! I’m out of coffee! Better make more!” way.

What we’ve been up to: Baseball is always on tv, Hockey is always on the other tv, there is swimming and having a good time and I think I’m picking up water balloons at the store today. All things are good.

What I’m dreading: I’m at a paralyzing moment with work right now I know I need to dig in but there’s just so much that I’m having trouble deciding what to do first. All will get done, I know, I just have to dig in.

What I’m working on: I’m mostly working on me these days. I lost my temper yesterday which hasn’t happened to that extent in a while but man. Need to rein that back in. I’m working on being a productive member of society and family and not hiding from life. It’s actually kind of fun to participate in things!

What I’m excited about: In the immediate future, I’m excited that it’s Friday and I get to go home and fill the splash pool and having a good time with my family. In the after-today future, I’m excited that in 49 days I’m going to NYC with some of my favorite people. I think about this daily.

What I’m watching/reading: I’m marathoning Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I’m almost done with (sad pout), and I *was* reading The Rosie Project but the ebook expired before I had a chance to finish (also sad pout)  but I have a couple of Kiera Cass novellas on my iPad and the latest Richelle Mead and I’ve borrowed The Girl on the Train from a friend at work, so I’m set. Might start Veronica Mars again after Buffy. Can’t seem to be bothered watching anything new.

What I’m listening to: yesterday I was listening to the worst audiobook I’ve ever heard and I made the very grown up decision to ditch it. So now I’m listening to Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen. Also a lot of 80s music.

What I’m wearing: Today? This.

Give me 9 hours and I’ll be in pjs on my back porch though.

What I’m doing this weekend: I can only give you what I HOPE to be doing. Saturday we wanted to a family day at Disney since it’s been so long since we’ve gone because of baseball. I’d really like to spend all day there, really enjoying ourselves. Sunday is Mother’s day, and I have asked to see if we can spend it at my in-laws’ house swimming and hanging out with sangria and chicken tacos and my mom too, but we’ll see. That involves not last-minute calling them and I don’t know if it will work out.

What I’m looking forward to next month: NYC with some of my best girls! Hopefully a day at the beach with more of my best girls! The end of first grade! (God Bless) A currently not-full calendar! Yay!